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THE 
RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 



BY 

EDMUND DAVISON SOPER 

FrofesBor of the Hietory of Religion in Northv^estem University 



IS^ 



THE ABINGDON PRESS 
NEW YORK CINCINNATI 






Copyright, 192 1, by 
EDMUND DAVISON SOPER 



APR 3j i32I 



To My Mother 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface 9 

CHAPTER I 
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 

The Approach to the Study of Religion 11 

The Fitting Attitude Toward Other Faiths 13 

The Definition of Religion 16 

The Origin of Religion 26 

The Development of Religion 36 

Suggestions for Further Study 44 

CHAPTER II 
ANIMISTIC RELIGION 

Animistic Peoples and Their Habitat 45 

Animism and the Mysterious Power 50 

The Higher Powers of Animistic Religion , 53 

Totemism and Tabu 64 

Animistic Worship 68 

Magic and Religion 75 

Suggestions for Further Study 79 

CHAPTER III 
EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 

The Nile Valley and Its Inhabitants 80 

The Egyptian Pantheon 85 

The Individual Here and Hereafter 91 

The Gods of Babylonia and Assyria 96 

Man's Approach to the Divine Powers loi 

Suggestions for Further Study 104 

CHAPTER IV 
GREECE AND ROME 

Religion Before Homer 106 

The Homeric Contribution no 

The Mysteries 113 

The Philosophers 116 

Early Roman Religion X20 



4 CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Contact with Greece 1 24 

The Influence of the East 128 

Suggestions for Further Study 133 

CHAPTER V 
THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 

The Indo-Europeans and Their Religion 135 

Zoroaster and His Reformation 139 

Development Since Zoroaster 144 

The Parsis of the Present Day 147 

Suggestions for Further Study 152 

CHAPTER VI 
HINDUISM 

The Religion of the Vedas 153 

The Philosophic Development 159 

The Caste System 164 

Hinduism Since the Rise of Buddhism 169 

Modern Reform Movements 1 74 

Suggestions for Further Study 179 

CHAPTER VII 
BUDDHISM 

Gautama the Buddha 180 

Early Buddhism 187 

HiNAYANA AND MaHAYANA I97 

Buddhism Among the Peoples 204 

Suggestions for Further Study 312 

CHAPTER VIII 
THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 

The Early Religion 213 

Confucius and His Contribution 219 

Laocius and Taoism 227 

Chinese Buddhism 230 

Suggestions for Further Study 234 

CHAPTER IX 
THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 

Shinto 235 

The Coming of Buddhism 240 

The Adoption of Confucianism 250 

Suggestions for Further Study 256 



CONTENTS 5 

CHAPTER X 
JUDAISM PACK 

The Religion of the Semites 257 

The Heritage of the Old Testament 261 

Judaism Since the Time of Christ 265 

Orthodoxy and Reform 271 

Suggestions for Further Study 275 

CHAPTER XI 
MOHAMMEDANISM 

The Prophet 276 

Faith and Practice 286 

Islam in History 295 

Suggestions for Further Study 303 

CHAPTER XII 
CHRISTIANITY 

Jesus Christ 304 

Development of Life and Teaching 311 

The Church and Its Expansion 320 

The Ground of Its Appeal 328 

Suggestions for Further Study 330 

Index 331 



PREFACE 

A SMALL book was published in 1918 entitled The Faiths 
of Mankind. It belonged to a series of College Voluntary 
Study Courses, and was prepared with that end in view. 
Since that time the desire has been repeatedly expressed 
that the writer prepare a volume with a wider public in 
view. The needs of the general reader and ministers were 
to be kept in mind as well as students in their college and 
seminary courses. Coming directly out of contact with 
students in the classroom, it is inevitable that the form of the 
present book and the selection and arrangement of material 
should be determined by that experience. 

The guiding principle has been not to overload the text 
with a multiplicity of facts, but to select and make use of 
such facts as are relevant to the main lines of development, 
and to make clear their meaning and relationships. To inter- 
pret facts has been looked upon as important as to present 
them. One of the main problems with students is to prevent 
the confusion which results from presenting great quantities 
of material which they are not prepared to assimilate and 
make use of intelligently. 

An introductory chapter on 'The Nature of Religion" 
has been included. No doubt such a subject can only be 
handled with satisfaction in a volume devoted to its consid- 
eration, but even a rapid survey as is presented here may 
introduce the student to the subject in such a manner as to 
make far more intelligible than would otherwise be possible 
the studies of religions which follow. The historical method 
is adhered to throughout. The underlying purpose has been 
to show how religion has developed in the history of the 
world rather than to trace the development of any single 

7 



8 PREFACE 

religion. Of course, the latter has been done in each case, 
but with the desire of showing how it has fitted into the 
growth of religion as a phase of human life. This has 
made necessary the inclusion of chapters on ancient religions 
which have passed away but which made their contribution 
to the progress of religion in the world. The attempt has 
not been made to deal with all the religions of the past or 
present. The ends sought could be reached by a presenta- 
tion of the great typical systems, and that has been done. 

The lists of books at the end of the chapters are exceed- 
ingly short. Bibliographies frequently offer such an array 
of titles that students scarcely know which way to turn. 
The lists have been pruned down to the minimum. Should 
further references be desired, they are ready at hand in 
many of the volumes given. The volumes of the History of 
Religions, by Professor George Foot Moore have been 
listed in connection with all the chapters save the first two. 
As the standard work in English they should be at the dis- 
posal of any reader who desires to proceed any distance 
beyond the bounds of the present text. Mention should also 
be made of Dr. James Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion 
and Ethics, a monumental work now nearing completion 
and covering every phase of the subject. Reference has 
not been made to this work in the lists of books because the 
items would have been too numerous for our space. But it 
is the most valuable work on the subject, and should, if pos- 
sible, be available to every reader and student. 

The writer has laid a heavy obligation on himself to be 
fair to each religion he has treated. He cannot hope to have 
been completely successful, despite his endeavor to present 
each faith in the light of all the available facts. Yet this has 
been his purpose, a purpose none the less strong because 
Jesus Christ is to him the light of all his seeing and the 
only hope he is able to discover for the peoples of the world 
in this day of change and reconstruction. 

The thanks of the author are due the publishers of vol- 



PREFACE 9 

umes from which quotations have been used in this work. 
Credit is given in each case in a footnote where the volume 
is quoted. 

Evanston, IlUnois. E. D. S. 

March 30, 192 1. 



CHAPTER I 
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 

The Approach to the Study of Religion 

As far back as history and archseology are able to pene- 
trate into the dim beginnings of human life man had a reli- 
gion. From these primitive times down to the present reli- 
gion has been playing its part at every stage in the course of 
human development. To understand any people or any man, 
to trace the history of civilization or the growth of a custom, 
religion must be called in to give its testimony, or we fail to 
probe the deepest springs of conduct and the controlling 
forces of human endeavor. The issues of life are deter- 
mined far down among the impulses and motives with which 
religion deals most powerfully and directly. The contribu- 
tion religion has made to human progress makes it impera- 
tive that it should be studied with great care. The pitfalls 
are many, and misconceptions are difficult to avoid. A little 
knowledge of religion is a dangerous thing, especially if it is 
made to support theories which might topple if brought into 
contact with all the facts in the case. The very seriousness 
of the issues involved calls for thoroughness and applica- 
tion, even in the understanding of what may at first sight 
seem to be unimportant details. Only by such devotion can 
the student hope to learn from an investigation of religion 
the lessons most surely awaiting appropriation and use. 

There are two ways of studying the religion of a people. 
One might be called the method of immediate contact, as 
when a traveler or a resident in a country uses his eyes and 
ears to learn all he can about the religion as practiced at the 
present time. He visits temples and sacred places, watches 
the worship, and pays careful attention to the ritual, asks 

II 



12 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

questions of all from whom he can secure information, takes 
account of the effect of the religion on life, and in these and 
other ways seeks to come to conclusions which correctly 
interpret the religion. This method of study is obviously 
indispensable wherever it can be applied. Certain religions, 
like those of ancient Greece and Rome, have died and 
passed away. In these cases no living touch is possible and 
we are compelled to resort to the evidence of archaeology 
and literature. But even with the living religions much 
investigation is still necessary before enough dependable 
material is at hand to draw conclusions which shall be at 
the same time correct and comprehensive. 

But more is needed than this work of description. An- 
other method must be called in to supplement and correct 
the impressions which have come through immediate contact 
with the people and their rehgious life. It may be called 
the method of historical investigation. What is desired is 
that the entire story of a religion shall be told from its 
beginnings, so far as they can be ascertained, through all 
the vicissitudes of its development, to the religion as it is 
after all the storms and contests through which it has 
passed. A religion cannot be fully explained by what lies 
just at hand. It has a past and this past has made the pres- 
ent what it is. Every belief and practice has its history and 
cannot be understood without a knowledge of the stages of 
its development. What could we know of Christianity with- 
out the Gospels, or of Mohammedanism without the Koran? 
And what could we know of present-day Protestantism with 
no knowledge of the Reformation? or of the Buddhism of 
Japan, ignorant of the long journey of the faith from India 
through China and Korea to the Island Empire? 

The only conclusion to be reached is that both methods 
must be used, each shedding light on the other. In the 
study of the religion of the most backward peoples, who 
have neither literature nor history, the only approach is by 
living contact, and among the most valuable contributions to 



THE NATURE OF RELIGION 13 

the whole science of religion have been the volumes coming 
from devoted and self-sacrificing investigators who have 
spent years in close contact with these savage tribes. In 
every case, whether the study be historical or through con- 
tact with the people, the rule must be to let no bit of evi- 
dence pass unheeded, but to allow each fact to appear in its 
true light and speak out its full message. Only by such 
impartial procedure is it possible to arrive at results which 
shall carry weight among candid students who are seeking 
the exact truth with reference to the religions of the world. 

The Fitting Attitude- Toward Other Faiths 

This is a practical problem. As students we are bound 
to be fair in our study of other religions, but we are more 
than students. Born in a Christian land and nurtured in an 
atmosphere which is a part of our common heritage, it is 
inevitable that we should have a Christian bias. Whether 
the student is himself a professing Christian or not, it makes 
little difference; he cannot divest himself of a certain bent 
of mind which has come to him as naturally as washing his 
face and hands before breakfast. If to be fair-minded in- 
volves erasing from his mind his prepossessions and convic- 
tions, then fair-mindedness is a fond dream. It is as impos- 
sible for one man as for another; we are all alike in this 
regard. Whatever we do and wherever we go, we carry our 
convictions with us, and they must be taken into account. 
The important question is. How shall we deal with them 
that we may be fair-minded and free from unreasoning 
prejudice? 

Such a thing is not easily done, nor does it come all at 
once. One must set himself resolutely through a consid- 
erable period to weigh evidence with scrupulous care, and 
not allow his conclusions to be vitiated by personal bias. 
By such a course of training one may be able to formulate 
his personal equation, like the astronomical observer. In 
other words, he may come to understand what his prejudices 



14 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

arc and how far they tend to warp his judgment. He will 
come to understand himself better as time passes and be able 
more readily to know when he is approaching his danger 
line. He will thus be able so to keep a check on himself 
that he may see things as they are, and give each fact and, 
in a larger way, each religion its correct valuation, not dis- 
torted by unscientific dogmatism and prejudice. 

This is not a natural gift; it is an achievement, but the 
achievement becomes a sacred duty when one gives himself 
to the delicate balancing of men's religious beliefs and prac- 
tices. Instead of being a liability, the possession of a Chris- 
tian experience may prove to be an important asset. One's 
ability to enter sympathetically into the religious life of 
men of other faiths depends largely on the possession of a 
religious experience himself. The experience of the bitter- 
ness of defeat and the consciousness of victory in the moral 
battle fits him the better to enter into the lives of others. 
The sense of God's presence in his heart and the belief in 
his goodness enable him the more completely to understand 
what is going on in the minds of other men, though the con- 
tent of their belief may differ widely from his own. 

The Christian student may join heartily with any student 
of religion, whatever his personal belief, in insisting that in 
the interpretation of the facts of religion the natural expla- 
nation must always be sought. Without this principle vig- 
orously applied no science of religion can be built up. To 
reach the point of willingness to allow everything in reli- 
gion, including all we hold most sacred in our own faith, 
to be exposed to the searchlight of historical and scientific 
investigation is a real achievement of faith. It is only a 
want of faith that would hedge in certain sacred spots with 
a high barrier and forbid scientific investigation within the 
proscribed inclosure. It is an admission of fear that science 
might dissolve what is held sacred and that religion might 
disappear in the brightness of the illumination. If anything 
in the Christian religion is so flimsy and evanescent, it is 



THE NATURE OF RELIGION 15 

certainly made of poor stuff and cannot long claim the alle- 
giance of candid men and women. 

And why should anyone be afraid? Every intelligent 
Christian believes that all truth is of God, and that all hon- 
est investigation can only arrive at further truth. And when 
natural explanation is pushed back as far as science is able 
to penetrate, a limit is reached beyond which no progress 
can be made, and yet with certain things remaining unex- 
plained. But these are the very things concerning which 
men and women are most anxious for light and direction. 
Religion, which up to this point has shared the field with 
history and science and other phases of human culture, now 
steps out alone and finds itself in its own unique habitat. 
It is the only voice which gives satisfaction to the human 
heart in the presence of the great crises of life, and espe- 
cially when man looks out into the great unknown and wants 
guidance and comfort. So long as human nature remains 
what it is, so long will religion find a responsive echo in the 
distraught lives of men and women seeking peace and failing 
to find it elsewhere. 

A Christian who is alert to the thought-life of the world 
cannot be indifferent to the religion of other peoples. In 
his consideration of the relation of his own faith to theirs 
he must be able to combine two convictions which are fre- 
quently strangers to each other. The first is the fundamen- 
tal Christian conviction that Christianity is unique, that it is 
the only faith adequate to meet the needs of all men. This 
sounds exclusive, and so it is. Christianity as a propagating, 
conquering faith would have ceased to exist long ago had 
it not been for this conviction. A religion lives by the inten- 
sity of its belief in its own peculiar worth and power. 
"There is none other name under heaven given among men, 
whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4. 12). This is a truly 
Christian statement; it is the food on which our faith lives 
and grows. 

But with this conviction another ^nust be held to save the 



i6 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

strong, exclusive belief just expressed from intolerance. 
The logic of intolerance is well known. It is this : Christi- 
anity is the only true faith, so all others must be false and 
ought to be harried to death as soon as possible. The logic 
of the Christian attitude is quite different. It starts with 
the same high declaration of the unique place of Christianity 
among the religions, but from that point the difference is 
radical. The word "false" is not to be used with reference 
to other religions. That word is reserved for the sordid and 
insincere, for the unworthy and base among the adherents 
of any religion, Christianity included. The Christian can- 
not but look on all other religions as the expression of man's 
unsatisfied longing after God and his attempt to reach the 
blessedness God alone can impart. Seen in this light the 
Christian cannot be intolerant. He must sympathize with 
the religious spirit in every place, even when it is openly 
antagonistic to him and his message. He will appreciate 
all the good to be found in every faith at the same time that 
he sees the inadequacy of the remedies that are applied. 
And in the end it will be impossible to refrain from giving 
to those who do not know Jesus Christ the message of moral 
victory and spiritual exaltation which can only be achieved 
through him. And this is the primary and everlasting pur- 
pose of Christian missions. 

The Definition of Religion 

Is a definition of religion possible? Mr. John Morley has 
a caustic statement in his article on "Democracy and Reac- 
tion" (Nineteenth Century, April, 1905) that "if we want 
a platitude, there is nothing like a definition. Perhaps most 
definitions hang between platitude and paradox. There are 
said to be ten thousand definitions of religion."' An extreme 
view is taken by Professor C. C. J. Webb, who declares that 



' Quoted by Edward Clodd in bis Animism, p. 9. (London, Con- 
stable, 1905.) 



THE NATURE OF RELIGION 17 

" a definition of religion is needless and impossible/" With- 
out doubt this is true if we are looking for a definition which 
shall be complete and comprehensive. There is that in reli- 
gion which baffles us and which always must elude a defini- 
tion. The best we may do is to be always approximating 
a definition, but never reaching it. The great realities of 
life are always bigger and deeper than we can comprehend. 
A developing thing can never be caged into a form of words 
which attempts once and for all to tell us what it is. If then 
we are looking for this kind of definition, perfect and com- 
plete, we shall of necessity be disappointed. So far we may 
go with Professor Webb. 

But what we need is something different. Our aim is 
more immediate and more modest. We stand in need of a 
guide, a basis of identification. How is the student to know 
in the welter of impressions which comes in upon him what 
is religious and what is not? A definition should enable 
him to detect religion and disentangle it from what is not 
religion though very similar and closely connected with it. 
Such a definition will not be complete, but it may be true; 
it will be tentative, like a scientific hypothesis, but it may 
prove extremely useful. And what is meant by being true 
is that it shall point with precision in the right direction to- 
ward the final goal. Religion doubtless is much more than 
is embodied in a definition, but it is at least that. We may be 
treading on safe ground and feel sure we have a reliable 
clue. This is about as much as a definition of religion may 
be expected to do, but it is highly significant for the practi- 
cal purpose we have in view. 

The assumption in the mind of everyone is that he knows 
what religion is — that is, until he makes the attempt to put 
down exactly what is in his mind. Then it becomes appar- 
ent that his ideas are hazy and ill-defined, and that too much 
had been taken for granted in his assumption of knowledge. 

'Group Theories of Religion and the Individual, p. 37. (London, 
Allen and Unwin, 1916.) 



iR THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

One's own viewpoint so aflFects his outlook that the danger 
always is that he shall take what religion means to him, put 
it into a statement, and call that religion. Like Parson 
Thwackum in Tom Jones, he may be tempted to say, "When 
I mention religion, I mean the Christian religion, and not 
only the Christian religion, but the Protestant religion, and 
not only the Protestant religion, but the Church of Eng- 
land.'" We have a religion, but so has the Zulu, and any 
definition worthy the name must be sufficiently inclusive to 
serve in any land and among any people. Religions differ 
greatly, as we shall see, but there must be some element or 
elements which all the religions have in common, or no defi- 
nition is possible. The common element or elements must 
be distinctive of religion, so that we may be able to trace the 
development of this one thing through the maze of the forms 
it has assumed. We must have in our definition a statement 
which will embrace every manifestation which can be called 
religious. 

Numerous attempts have been made to define religion. 
John Morley's "ten thousand definitions of religion" sounds 
a bit rhetorical, but certainly points vividly to the fact that 
about every writer who essays to write on religion at all 
makes a trial at definition. Some of these definitions have 
proved so significant and so determinative of later attempts 
that a brief survey would seem to be imperative. Only 
through many years have students been able to disengage 
religion from other elements of culture and determine more 
exactly its distinctive nature. Even now theories are ar- 
rayed against each other which are so wide apart that it 
becomes all the more important that some position should 
be taken to save oneself from helpless confusion in the study 
of the religious life of the various peoples. 

A few definitions there have been which disparage reli- 
gion. Salomon Rcinach writes thus, "I propose to define 



' Quoted by Edward Clodd, Animism, p. 9. 



i 



THE NATURE OF RELIGION 19 

religion as : A sum of scruples which impede the free exer- 
cise of our faculties."* One more may be given, that of Giu- 
seppe Sergi : "Religion is a pathological manifestation of the 
protective function, a sort of deviation of the normal func- 
tion, a deviation caused by ignorance of natural causes and 
their effects.'" These definitions lack the fundamental re- 
quirement of a definition. They do not spring from any 
real insight into the meaning of what they are attempting to 
define. Such insight can come only as a result of sympa- 
thetic investigation of religious beliefs and practices, and 
this is sadly lacking in the case of these scholars. , A student 
must understand before he defines, and to understand reli- 
gion he must view it from within, feeling at home amid the 
factors which make up the complex thing we know by 
that name. 

Not far removed from this completely negative attitude 
is that which was held by the English Deists of the eight- 
eenth century. To these skeptical writers the value of reli- 
gion was merely as a practical discipline, an arrangement 
for keeping people decent and respectable. By some it was 
given a higher place than by others, by Herbert of Cher- 
bury, for example, in contrast with Thomas Hobbes, but in 
the estimation of all, religion was not of great importance 
in itself, but only as a handmaid of moraHty. Hobbes goes 
so far as to make religion a means of promoting the safety 
of individuals. Society is looked upon as a great police 
organization. All religious and civil authority springs from 
fear and is necessary in order to keep men subservient and 
within bounds. 

It is quite evident that these men had no adequate appre- 
ciation of religion, that they had never experienced the pres- 
ence of God in their own hearts. While they had high 
regard for decent living, they had never heard the thunders 
of Sinai. Had they done so, they might have had a more 

* Orpheus: A General History of Religions, English trans., p. 3. 
" Les Emotions, p. 404. 



20 THE RELIGION'S OF MANKIND 

profound conception of the ver\' morality which they pro- 
fessed to admire so highly. They never realized that right- 
eousness had its source in the inmost nature of God himself. 
Such a view would have saved them from their superfi- 
ciality, and would have raised religion to its rightful place 
of primacy. They did well to set morality and religion in 
the closest relationship, but by failing to appreciate the 
nature of the bond they placed religion where its chief work 
could not be accomplished and did violence to the morality 
which they were so concerned to maintain. 

Turning now to definitions of men who have shown high 
regard for religion, we may expect a very different type of 
definition. But even here restricted and one-sided views are 
to be found, views which have had their day, but w^hich in a 
number of cases have been most influential in all later at- 
tempts at definition. There are those definitions which 
restrict religion to one phase of human life. Such is that of 
Hegel, who makes religion a matter of the intellect. One of 
his statements is this: "Thus religion is the Divine Spirit's 
knowledge of itself through the mediation of finite spirit." 
Leaving aside the monistic implication in this definition as 
irrelevant to our immediate interest, it is clear that religion 
was to Hegel purely a matter of thought. Others in a later 
day have to a greater or less degree followed in the same 
direction. Professor E. B. Tylor has a very simple state- 
ment : "The minimum definition of religion is the belief in 
spiritual beings." This famous definition is one which re- 
duces religion in its final analysis to a beHef, an intellectual 
attitude. Max Miiller makes religion '*a mental faculty or 
disposition, which, independent of — nay, in spite of — sense 
and reason, enables man to apprehend the infinite under dif- 
ferent names and under var>'ing guises."^ This was later mod- 
ified. "Religion consists in the perception of the Infinite un- 
der such manifestations as are able to influence the moral 



•Primitive Culture, 1871, vol. i, p. 383. 

' Introduction to Science of Religion, 1873, P- 17. 



THE NATURE OF RELIGION Ji 

character of man.'" But in both cases the emphasis is intel- 
lectual, in spite of the necessity which caused Professor 
Miiller in the second to incorporate the moral implication of 
religion as a part of his definition. 

Religion has been defined in terms of the emotions as 
well as of the intellect. One of the most famous of all def- 
initions is that of Schleiermacher : "The essence of the reli- 
gious emotions consists in the feeling of an absolute depend- 
ence,'" While this may be one-sided, the emphasis placed 
upon the emotional element in religion by Schleiermacher has 
deeply influenced subsequent attempts. In the present day 
Professor John McTaggart has a definition with a simi- 
lar emphasis: "It seems to me that religion may best be 
described as an emotion, resting on a conviction of a har- 
mony between ourselves and the universe at large.'"" While 
it rests on a conviction, religion is "described as an emotion." 
The emphasis is the same as that of Schleiermacher. And 
finally, religion has been defined as will, or the fulfillment of 
moral obligation. Kant stands first here with his declara- 
tion that "religion is the recognition of all duties as divine 
commands," and Matthew Arnold may be said to emphasize 
the same side of religion in his well-known word, "Religion 
is morality touched by emotion."" 

In all of these cases we would be doing an injustice to 
insist that no place was given in religion to the other func- 
tions of the human mind, but the emphasis clearly has been 
as indicated in the quotations. The difficulty is that the 
emphasis is placed so strongly on one or another of the 
factors that religion becomes less comprehensive than it 
actually is. Religion is coming more and more to be recog- 
nized as all-embracive, as functioning in every department 
of human life, as involving the intellect, the emotions, and 
the will if it is normal and true of type. So while all these 

' The Origin of Religion, 1878, p. 21. 
• On Religion, p. 106. 
" Some Dogmas of Religion, p. 3. 
" Literature and Dogma, 1873, p. 46. 



22 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

definitions are true as far as they go, and have been widely 
influential in subsequent investigations, they arc partial and 
incomplete nevertheless. 

Another set of definitions — and these arc all the product 
of recent years — divide on the question of the individual as 
contrasted with the social emphasis in religion. We choose 
but two of these statements, both from American psychol- 
ogists. The first is from William James: "Religion, there- 
fore, as I now ask you arbitrarily to take it, shall mean for 
us the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in 
their solitude, as far as they apprehend themselves to stand 
in relation to whatever they may consider the divine.'"^ The 
other is from Professor William K. Wright: "The genius 
of religion is the endeavor to secure the conservation of 
socially recognized values."" Each of these definitions em- 
phasizes an important truth of rehgion. Religion is both 
individual and social. The danger lies in laying such exclu- 
sive emphasis on one or the other of these factors that no 
standing room seems left for the other. Religion is individ- 
ual in that for each man his religious experience is his own. 
He has a vertical relationship which is between himself and 
the higher powers on whom he believes, but James goes too 
far when he speaks of the religion of "individual men in 
their solitude," for a man's religion is so far determined by 
his lateral relationships in society that what he has is not his 
alone, nor did it come to him in solitude. Religion does un- 
doubtedly conserve social values, and it is most fortunate 
that this feature of religious life has been emphasized. But 
to the individual religion is social and then something more. 
The social aspects fill the horizon in the earlier stages of 
development, when man as an individual can scarcely be 
said to exist, but gradually, as personality develops and each 
man begins to stand out in his separate individuality, a con- 



'• Varieties of Religious Experience, p. 31. (Longmans, New 
York, 1913) 

"American Journal of Theology, vol. xvi, pp. 385-409. 



THE NATURE OF RELIGION 23 

sciousness of a certain uniqueness comes over him and he 
realizes that while he belongs to society he is separate and 
detached from others in his own individuality and in his 
relation to the powers on whom he is dependent. 

There are those who define religion in terms of worship. 
Professor Allan Menzies states it thus : ^'Religion is the wor- 
ship of higher powers from a sense of need.'"* Professor 
A. S. Geden comes to this conclusion : "On the whole, then, 
it would seem that the essential quality or nature of religion 
is best described as consisting in worship."" One other, the 
striking statement of Professor Auguste Sabatier, may be 
given, "Prayer is religion in act — that is to say, real reli- 
gion.'"' In these cases, as the context shows, worship is 
broadened out to become the expression of the total attitude 
of man, in the fullness of his life, toward his God. Yet, 
ordinarily speaking, religion is more than worship. The 
attitude of the worshiper must include more than the wor- 
ship itself, or else his religion is restricted and incomplete. 
Yet the central act of religion is worship, and religion would 
die without it, so an adequate definition must provide for 
this reaction of the mind toward the higher powers or be 
found wanting. 

In our own day a class of definitions is being presented 
with no necessary reference to higher powers or to God. 
The classic statement, and that which has largely influenced 
others of the class, is that of Professor Harald Hofifding: 
"The conservation of value is the characteristic axiom of 
religion.'"'^ Professor E. S. Ames has a definition very 
similar: "Religion is the consciousness of the highest social 
values."" Professor G. A. Coe speaks of "religion as an 
immanent movement within our valuations, a movement that 

"History of Religion, p. 13. (Scribners, New York, 1914.) 

" Studies in the Religions of the East, p. 53. (Kelly, London, 

1913) 
" Philosophy of Religion, p. 27. (James Pott, New York, 1913.) 
"Philosophy of Religion, p. 10. (Macmillan, London, 1906.) 
"Psychology of Religious Experience, p. vii. (Houghton Mifflin, 

Boston, 1910.) 



24 T?IE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

docs not terminate in any single set of thought contents, or 
in any set of particular values."** It is difficult to do justice 
to these writers without quoting much more fully than this 
survey will permit, but we may at least say that these defini- 
tions run counter to those we have been considering in that 
religion is defined with no reference to any higher power. 
The question which is raised is this: Is the distinguishing 
thing in religion something subjective or is it objective? Is 
the difference between religions one growing out of differ- 
ences in values or of differences in the religious object? To 
put it in other words : Must a man believe in God or some 
higher power to be religious or can he be considered such 
with no reference to divine powers of any kind? 

Let us say at once that values always form a most impor- 
tant element in religion. Men want something which has 
value for them. If it did not have value, they would not 
pursue nor desire it. There are satisfactions of various 
kinds which are craved, and these desires form the dynamic 
of religion as of other human activities. But the question 
which arises is this: Is the conservation of these values the 
inner core of what we call religion ? True, it is the inevitable 
accompaniment of religion, but is it the differentia of reli- 
gion? The question resolves itself into this pertinent prob- 
lem: Shall we define religion by the ends which are desired 
or by the means used to secure them? There are certain 
desires which men have, desires emotional and intellectual, 
individual and social. Now, if religion is the conservation 
of values with no necessary reference to man's attempt to 
secure this conservation through his relationship to higher 
powers, then religion may be defined without any reference 
to anything supernatural. That is accidental, even though 
it may be frequent and even almost inevitable. It remains 
only a means to an end, and the end which is sought is the 
reality in religion. 

But it is possible to look at it from another angle, that of 

'•Psychology of Religion, p. 72. (Unir. Chicago Press, 1916.) 



THE NATURE OF RELIGION 25 

man's experience as he rises out of lower and reaches the 
higher planes of religious life. Man is after all sorts of 
things, material, physical, social, moral, and spiritual. He 
tries every means at his disposal, and among them is a cer- 
tain conscious relation he holds with unseen higher powers. 
This relationship, purified and developed, becomes the chief 
glory of his life, raising him to a new dignity, bringing 
peace and unity to his troubled mind, and taking its place 
as the inspiring center of his whole life. And the remark- 
able thing is that what to him at the beginning was a means 
to an end becomes an end in itself. He is suffused with a 
glory unknown to him before, and to know God is the su- 
preme desire and chief end of his existence. At all stages 
it does conserve values, but so do many other things which 
could never be called religion. This one relationship is 
unique; it makes its contribution to life as do the other 
factors, but is to be distinguished by a content which places 
it in a class by itself. The desire to conserve values is the 
soil out of which religion springs, and the conservation itself 
the end which religion seeks, but neither is to be confused 
with the thing itself, which is a relation of men to powers 
higher than themselves. 

What, then, is religion ? To sum up : It seems clear that 
religion consists of a number of elements. It is a relation- 
ship of conscious dependence on higher powers; it makes a 
demand on the whole of man's life, intellect, emotion, and 
will; it is both individual and social; it is worship, yet it is 
more than worship; and it conserves all the values which 
give worth and meaning to human life. The definition which 
includes all these features as successfully as any is that of 
L. de Grandmaison : ''Religion is the sum total of behefs, 
sentiments, and practices, individual and social, which have 
for their object a power which man recognizes as supreme, 
on which he depends and with which he can enter (or has 
entered) into relation.'"" A very convenient form of state- 

*'The History of Religion, vol. i, p. 3. (Herder, St. Louis, 1914.) 



26 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

ment is that given by Professor William Newton Clarke, 
"Religion is the life of man in his superhuman relations."" 
With these in mind we may venture on our study of the 
religions of the world, with a clue sufficiently clear to guide 
our steps in and out among the multitude of facts and fancies 
which await classification and interpretation." 

The Origin of Religion 

About a half century ago Sir John Lubbock, in his volume 
Prehistoric Times, attempted to show that religion was not 
universal, that there were tribes of men scattered fairly 
widely over the earth which had no religion, no worship, no 
belief in higher powers with whom they were related. Pro- 
fessor Robert Flint felt it necessary in his Baird Lecture for 
1877, Anti-Theistic Theories, to answer Sir John Lubbock 
at length. The interesting thing is that the answer followed 
the same method as the argument it was answering. In each 
case reports from travelers and others were studied and 
criticized to determine as nearly as possible what the actual 
condition of the tribes under scrutiny indicated. The con- 
clusion reached by Professor Flint was this: "An impartial 
examination of the relevant facts, it appears to me, shows 
that religion is virtually universal.'"^ 

Such a claim as that of Sir John Lubbock is no longer 
made. Not only has the more careful study of savages led 
to a deeper understanding of their life, but psychology has 
been developing as a science by leaps and bounds, and has 
made almost unnecessary any further investigation among 
savages themselves to determine the fundamental question 
of the essential religious nature of man. But even before 
this development had more than begun. Professor Flint had 

"An Outline of Christian Theology, p. i, (Scribners, New York, 
1901.) 

" I have been indebted for a number of these definitions to a list 
of definitions of religion compiled by Professor Robert E. Hume, of 
Union Theological Seminary. 

"P. 288. (Blackwood, Edinburgh, 1899.) 



THE NATURE OF RELIGION 27 

sensed the conclusions reached by psychology in a more 
recent time and declared that "the world has been so framed, 
and the mind so constituted, that man, even in his lowest 
estate, and all over the world, gives evidence of possessing 
religious perceptions and emotions."^* This could scarcely 
be better expressed by the most modern of our psychologists, 
even though the technical terms might be a little different. 
The study of human nature gives abundant proof that man 
is normally religious, that religion is an experience which 
man inevitably possesses as soon as his life begins to be or- 
ganized and enters into relationship with his fellows and the 
nature which surrounds him on all sides. We are dealing, 
then, with what is a universal phenomenon. 

It is the origin of religion that we are now to investigate. 
The immediate impulse is to go back in history to the begin- 
nings and there make a study of man in the process of 
becoming religious. This implies that there must have been 
a time when man had no religion, but was developing into a 
religious being. The very statement just made carries its 
own refutation on its face. Man is fundamentally religious 
and that ought to make it apparent at once that history would 
afford no light on this question of origins. And such is the 
case. Go back as far as history extends and man is reli- 
gious. The same evidence is forthcoming when archaeol- 
ogy is called upon for its testimony. The prehistoric re- 
mains in Europe and elsewhere, as far as they prove any- 
thing, show man possessed of certain ideas and performing 
certain acts which give strong evidence of being religious. 
If, then, we are to know anything about the origin of reli- 
gion — for it surely must have had an origin — we are com- 
pelled to go elsewhere for the help we need. 

The only other course open is the appeal to psychology. 
What this means is that we must seek to find what in man 
this thing called religion is genetically, what it is which 
always develops in this way no matter where man is found. 

** Anti-Theistic Theories, p. 288. 



28 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

It is hard to know what to call it. Not an instinct surely, 
when one realizes the meaning of the instinctive life as now 
given us by psychological analysis and experiment. An 
instinct is called by Alexander Bain, "that untaught ability 
to perform actions."* Religion is not as simple a reaction 
as that, but is more complex, the reaction resulting from the 
combined action of the more fundamental features of the 
mental life. But this is not to say that religion is not deeply 
rooted in human nature. As Professor Coe puts it, ''This 
way of organizing experience in terms of ideal values is a 
first item in the religious nature of man. It is present in all 
normal individuals, and is a type toward which freedom, 
popular education, and democracy tend.'"" We may not be 
able to arrive at a term more definite than that just used — 
"the religious nature of man" — but the fact to be emphasized 
is that the organizing of experience into what we call reli- 
gion is the normal thing, so much so that, to quote again, 
"Any individual who fails to meet the conditions of life in 
this way we classify as imbecile.""" 

The material for such an investigation is quite accessible. 
Child study has been carried to such a point that certain con- 
clusions may well be accepted as certain, though the conflict 
of opinions at other points is proof that much remains unset- 
tled. The developing mind of a child must have some like- 
ness to that of the early men of the race. The same may be 
said of the psychology of the backward peoples which has 
been pursued so earnestly by a small band of competent 
scholars. But in each case the evidence can only be used 
with caution. Neither the child nor the present-day savage 
can be held to be just like primitive man. The determining 
factor is undoubtedly normal psychology, our own develop- 
ment as we look back at it, and what seems to us as reason- 



" Quoted by James Ward, Psychological Principles, p. 53. (Cam- 
bridge Univ. Press. 1919.) 
" Psychology of Religion, p. 324. 
^ Coe, op. cit., p. 324. 



THE NATURE OF RELIGION 29 

able in the nature of things. What can be expected as a 
result of such a method of procedure? The best that can 
be said is that it is a more or less plausible conjecture. But 
with all that there is value in the investigation, as it compels 
us to think through certain aspects of the religious life more 
thoroughly and in a manner which might otherwise be 
missed. 

We may only take a glance at a very old theory of the 
origin of religion, that of Lucretius, who in a famous state- 
ment ascribed the origin of religion to a sense of fear. Now, 
fear has played a large part in religion and continues to do 
so, even among those whose religion should have "cast out 
fear/' but to make fear responsible for rehgion is only a 
part of the story. No single cause can be assigned as the 
originating principle of so absorbing and complex an expe- 
rience as religion. Aside from this early theory on the sub- 
ject little was attempted until the time of the EngHsh Deists 
in the eighteenth century. Christians, Jews, and Moham- 
medans alike assumed a primitive divine revelation, and that 
settled the whole question. They conceived that in the be- 
ginning — that means when the first man was created and 
placed in the Garden of Eden — God revealed to him in some 
manner the essential truths of religion, such as the existence 
of one God, the obligation to obey him, and the hope of 
immortality. Thus furnished, he began his career, but when 
sin emerged the revelation became hazy and indistinct and 
finally was well-nigh if not completely lost. The difficulty 
with this exceedingly fascinating picture is that it rests on 
no solid foundation of fact. The Bible makes no clear state- 
ment which would lead to this conclusion. When man began 
to play his part he performed religious acts and engaged at 
times in a religious ritual; so much is evident, but nothing 
is said as to origins. 

That man received his religious nature from God is 
very plausible, but that differs widely from the statement 
that he came into life furnished with a full set of religious 



30 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

ideas. The theory of evolution presents us with a very dif- 
ferent account of early man, an account which makes belief 
in a more or less complete revelation incongruous. He de- 
veloped into what he has become and many ages passed be- 
fore he was ready to appreciate the truths which on the other 
theory he is said to have received as an original endowment. 
The easy way in which through all the centuries of Christian 
history thinkers accounted for the non-Christian religions 
was to refer them to the devil as the author. This was a 
simple solution of a difficult problem, and it carried the 
Christian Church until within the last century or two, but 
it is too simple to be convincing and betrays an ignorance so 
profound that it is hard to be patient with it to-day. 

Now the Deists had their own notion of the rise of reli- 
gion. They were not only willing to allow that man might 
have had an original endowment of religious ideas, but they 
had the matter quite thoroughly worked out. A number of 
conceptions which fitted in well with their idea of religion 
as a natural phenomenon in the life of man were made to 
constitute his original religious outfit. But this was not the 
significant part of their theory. Man would have been all 
right had he retained the simplicity of his original behef, 
but this was not to be. A class of men arose, who came to 
be known as priests, who found they could work upon the 
fears and credulity of men and by so doing gain advantage 
for themselves. In order to fasten their grip upon men 
they devised beliefs and ritual practices which worked upon 
the superstitious fears of men and gave the priesthood a hold 
like bands of iron. This, then, explains the origin of the 
religions which have grown up among men. These wily men 
saw their chance to keep the people in their power, and have 
even down to our day been devising new schemes to make 
their tenure perpetual. No one would be foolhardy enough 
now to propound such a theory of the origin of religion. 
It is too superficial and shows great ignorance of religion 
and its deep foundations in human life. And let us see, as. 



THE NATURE OF RELIGION 31 

Professor Morris Jastrow points out, that it is not the func- 
tion of priests to originate but to conserve. The prophet 
and the seer are the dynamic creators in human society, and 
they have been free men troubling themselves little about the 
paraphernalia of religion, but speaking out a message full of 
pregnant meaning as men face a new age/^ 

With these outworn theories as a background we may take 
up those which have arisen more recently. They are the 
result of scientific historical investigation and are an attempt 
to explain religion on the basis of all the facts which are 
available. But even here inference must play a large part 
in the final conclusion. There are facts, but they do not go 
far enough back to give any sure standing ground for an 
incontrovertible conclusion. The best approach is by way 
of the theory enunciated by Professor E. B. Tylor in his 
epoch-making volumes on Primitive Culture. It is called 
the animistic theory. According to Professor Tylor early 
man attributed life to nature and the objects around him. 
He looked upon all he saw as animated, as possessing a 
spirit Hke his own. He did this by the only instrument of 
reason he had to explain what he saw and heard and felt. 
It was the principle of analogy, according to which all he 
saw was explained by reference to his own personality. If 
he saw a tree bend under the wind, he could only explain 
it by thinking that he could make the wind blow, too, and 
thus in a lesser but similar fashion do what he saw happen- 
ing in nature. He could blow, and so there must be some 
invisible but very big somebody out there who was blowing 
very hard and causing the trees of the forest to bend and 
groan in the gale. To him somebody more or less like him- 
self was accountable for everything that happened. He 
carried it out to such lengths that the very existence of a 
separate thing, even a dead thing like a stone, could be ex- 
plained only on the basis of an inner spirit which was its life. 
Thus all nature became alive, filled with innumerable spirits 

^"The Study of Religion, chap. iv. (Scribners, New York, 191 1.) 



32 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

everywhere and in everything. There was to early man 
and to the savage to-day no such thing as inanimate nature. 
It was all alive and throbbing with a life like his own. 

Coming to the point which concerns us immediately, Pro- 
fessor Tylor held that religion had its origin in the rela- 
tionship which man established with certain of the spirits 
of his animism. This theory has been criticized by Profes- 
sor R. R. Marett in his The Threshold of Religion. He 
agrees with Professor Tylor in his general conclusion that 
primitive man came finally to an animistic conclusion, but 
he feels that the finished animism of Professor Tylor gives 
evidence of considerable development in early man. Ac- 
cording to that theory man attributed a definite, distinct 
spirit to the objects of nature, to each tree and mountain 
and spring in his vicinity. But, says Professor Marett, 
how could man thus attribute a spirit to what he saw when 
his own spirit-life was so uncertain? His thinking was 
confused and indistinct because, in the nature of the case, 
he was not capable of anything more. In this condition it 
takes far too much for granted to believe the savage capable 
of seeing distinct spirits in the nature which surrounded 
him. What Professor Marett feels is that to primitive man 
nature was characterized by a kind of aliveness just as he 
was conscious of a certain aliveness in himself. Now, even 
in this early stage we feel that religion had its beginnings, 
that man did not have to wait until he could attribute a sep- 
arate spirit to each object of nature in order to have a reli- 
gion, so we have what may be called a "preanimistic reli- 
gion," using animism in the strict sense of Professor Tylor's 
theory. This general aliveness later developed into the defi- 
nite personification of the objects of nature, that is, as 
his own distinctness became more and more evident to 
himself. 

Professor Marett makes another telling point in criticizing 
the theory of Professor Tylor. The theory does not tell us 
why man should have been led to worship the spirits of his 



THE NATURE OF RELIGION 33 

animism. This is, after all, the question of questions con- 
cerning the origin of religion. Whatever our conclusion, let 
us remember that the animistic theory of nature must be 
the basis on which we must build. Without that we have no 
approach which promises a valid explanation of the savage 
way of looking at things. 

A further development of the theory just stated is that of 
Herbert Spencer. He accepted the animistic explanation 
of primitive thinking, but emphasized that aspect which 
deals with the spirits of the dead. As far back as we can 
dimly penetrate, man is seen offering sacrifice to the spirits 
of his departed ancestors, and this Herbert Spencer believes 
to have been the earliest form of religion. Ancestors, then, 
were the first beings worshiped. Even the more inclusive 
worship of the objects of nature all around him is derived 
from the worship offered to those who have died and as 
ghosts continue their existence not very far away. The crit- 
icism to be made here is that a single form of primitive reli- 
gion can scarcely be made to account for the origin of reli- 
gion any more than some other aspects which might be men- 
tioned. Why should death any more than some of the mani- 
festations of power and activity evident on all sides be made 
the sole explanation of the origin of religion ? 

We are still far from an answer to the primary question 
confronting us, What was it that caused primitive man to 
turn in worship to certain beings whom he considered di- 
vine? But before attempting an answer it is necessary to 
take up one more recent theory which is receiving wide 
attention to-day because of the skill and ability with which 
it is presented. I refer to the sociological theory of the 
origin of religion presented by Professor Emile Durkheim, 
the leader of the school of French sociologists, in his work 
entitled The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. To 
Professor Durkheim religion is a genuine phase of human 
life which will last because it corresponds to human need. 
But religion is not a supernatural affair, nor does it imply 



34 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

a belief in divine beings. It is a conscious relation to what 
are called "sacred things," and the totem is the type of 
these sacred things. We cannot at this point say more 
about the totem than that it is an animal (or sometimes a 
plant) with which a group of men believe they are closely 
related. This theory is found among savage people in many 
widely separated parts of the world. The sacredness which 
attaches to the totem is to be explained by the presence in it 
of a strange, mysterious force, pervasive and impersonal, 
which is supposed to explain life and activity in men and 
things. How did the thought that such a power existed 
arise in the mind of primitive man? Here is the distinctive 
point in the theory of the French sociologist. The presence 
of this force was aroused in man's mind by society. What 
does this mean? The group consciousness is different from 
that of the individual, though, of course, in each case it is 
an experience of the individual. But he realizes that in his 
group, which we call society, certain things come to him 
which could not be his were he alone in the world. It is his 
sense of the power, the protection, and the common inter- 
ests of the group that becomes to him the consciousness of a 
mysterious power in the world, and this is the power he 
worships. The totem is its emblem, but the power wor- 
shiped is society. So society is his god, and the only god 
he has is society. The god of the clan is the clan itself. 
Thus social relations explain ever)^thing, with no relation to 
anything supernatural. Undoubtedly religion is social, but 
this is quite different from saying with these scholars that 
that is all there is to religion. Man persists in believing 
that he is in touch not only with his fellows but with beings 
who are over and above him. Is the lesson taught by the 
whole history of religion mistaken? Is there no supernat- 
ural? Is society all the God there is? '"Yes," say these 
scholars. But again, is there not an individual reference to 
religion which becomes the more clear as religion develops 
into its higher forms? A broader foundation must surely 



THE NATURE OF RELIGION 35 

be laid to explain the whole of what has been developed in 
the course of man's religious history. 

From what has been said earlier in this section it will be 
apparent that man has a certain capacity for religion which 
is his normally simply because he is a man. Man has a bent 
in the direction of religion which only needs the proper 
stimulus to become religion in one of its many recognizable 
forms. Here, then, in principle is what we propose as a 
sufficient explanation of religion, that is, as far as this ori- 
gin can be explained at all. There must be an inner response 
to an influence from without before we are able to discover 
religion in man; and both factors, the subjective and the 
objective, are necessary to account for the final product. 
What is that influence from without to which the mind of 
primitive man responds? It is the total impress of nature, 
his environment, the outside world, the society of which he 
is a part, on his primitive mind. The points of contact are 
without number, and through every one come pouring in all 
kinds of stimuli. Most of these have no particular religious 
significance, but some affect him as so strange, so mysteri- 
ous, so awesome that he trembles when he is in their pres- 
ence. It is this sense of mystery and awe in the presence of 
what he conceives as higher powers coupled with a deep 
dissatisfaction which urged him on to secure what he did 
not have which is the beginning of religion. 

So much may be fairly clear, that religion is the result of 
an inner response to outward influences, but the main point 
is yet to be considered. How does it happen that in certain 
cases his reaction to his environment is of that peculiar 
nature which we call religious ? What causes primitive man 
to assume an attitude of dependence and of worship as he 
stands in the presence of what he looks upon as divine pow- 
ers ? I do not think this question can be fully answered. We 
may and ought to push natural explanation back as far as it 
is possible with the light of the last fact which may serve 
as a guide, but when that shall have been done there is still 



36 THE RELIGIONS OE MANKIND 

some distance to travel. We may repeat the statement that 
man has a reHgious nature, but when we come to close quar- 
ters with that phrase it does not deliver up its full meaning 
to our inquiry. Max Miiller cut the Gordian knot by saying 
that it was man's "sense of the infinite" which accounts for 
the possibility of the rise of religion in his soul. This has 
been severely criticized by many writers, but, after all, it is 
one way of stating that in man there is that which answers 
to the voice from without and which in the end results in 
religion. It points to that mysterious something which 
makes man reach out beyond the seen to the invisible world 
of which he is dimly conscious. 

But when one believes that God has been revealing him- 
self to man in many forms and at all periods in the long 
story of his life it is possible to take one further step. We 
are told that there is a light which lighteth every man com- 
ing into the world, and that even far removed from any of 
the legal systems which have been devised there is an inner 
law in the breasts of men which acts as a monitor over their 
thoughts and deeds. We may not believe in a primitive rev- 
elation in the sense that it consisted of a number of reli- 
gious ideas placed in the mind of primitive man, but it is a 
very different matter to believe that man's religious nature, 
his religious proclivity, is the gift of God, a part of his orig- 
inal endowment, without which, whatever nature or society 
might have done, religion would never have developed. 

The Development of Religion 

Two results of our study are doubtless already apparent. 
One is that religion is fundamentally the same thing, 
whether found among wild men on an island in the South 
Seas or among the cultivated members of a Christian 
church. It is always a relationship between man and higher 
powers, a relationship stimulated by a sense of need. The 
other result is that all religions hark back to the most prim- 
itive forms and are developments from this simple germ. 



THE NATURE OF RELIGION 57 

This introduces us at once to our present subject, the devel- 
opment of religion. 

The first question is, What is the key to this development ? 
or, What causes a religion to develop into something more 
complex and sublime? The clue is to be found in the dis- 
cussion of the origin of religion, where it was seen that 
without a conscious sense of need man would never have 
developed a religion at all. Now, the same causes which 
led to the first beginnings of religion undoubtedly are the 
explanation of its development. We may say, then, that the 
development of religion follows and is determined by a sense 
of need. When needs are simple and crude, the religion 
partakes of the same simplicity and crudity; when needs 
become more extensive and refined, religion changes to meet 
the new and enlarging needs. We may be sure of this, be- 
cause, after all the religions we know of have been examined, 
no savage people have ever been found with a highly devel- 
oped religion. The religion they possess is suited to their 
needs and is on the level of their advancement in culture 
and outlook on life. An intelligent people demand a reli- 
gion suited to their wants, or else it will gradually become 
outgrown. If it is not able by reinterpretation or the assim- 
ilation of new elements, borrowed or discovered by some 
far-sighted prophet, to meet the newer needs, it is laid aside 
for other forms or for another religion, which promise the 
better to fit in with the advance in civilization which has 
been achieved. In every period of transition from an old 
order, which has become outworn, to a new order as yet 
untried, this process has gone on. Some religions have 
ceased to exist, and have been replaced by new religions, 
which interpret better than the old the aspirations of the 
people as they look forward with hope to a better day. In 
other cases religions have shown a remarkable capacity of 
adaptation and have continued to live and thrive until our 
own time. 

There is no more significant or interesting feature of the 



38 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

study of the religions of the world than this. Certain well- 
marked periods of crisis are to be discovered in the story 
of every civilized or even semi-civilized people, and it is 
just at these crucial turning points when, after rehgion has 
seemed to be almost stationary for centuries it may be, a 
new life can be discovered stirring among men, and the 
result is the ushering in of a new age. Just at the present 
time the religions of the world are passing through such a 
crisis. The invasion of the Orient by ideas entirely strange, 
the well-nigh complete acceptance of Western education, 
and the contact with the moral and religious ideas of Chris- 
tendom have created an unprecedented situation, involving a 
crisis in the moral ideals and religious beliefs of all the 
peoples who have come under their influence. What the 
outcome will be no one can foresee. One thing is altogether 
clear: a profound change is taking place, and the final result 
will be apparent only when the nations have to a greater 
or less extent settled down again as partakers of the culture 
of the new age which is dawning. 

One of the questions raised by such considerations con- 
cerns the strange inequality in development. While no 
people have been discovered who fail to show some evi- 
dence of advance, that advance in many cases is so slight 
that, compared with the great religious systems of the world, 
it seems to be sluggish and almost stagnant. Now, the ques- 
tion arises, why should one religion have advanced and 
others remained almost in their primitive state? Why 
should one people have developed needs and others not? 
Again, why should a people remain savage for untold ages, 
then suddenly begin the march forward? What makes the 
difference between peoples? Is it racial precosity? Is it the 
effect of environment? Is it because of outward stimulus? 
Is it economic, or social, or individual ? No final answer has 
been found to these and similar questions. 

But while these final questions wait for a satisfying an- 
swer we may go some distance into the process of devel- 



THE NATURE OF RELIGION 39 

opment and seek to discover some of its laws. We may say 
at once that the growth of anything so complex as religion 
cannot be accounted for by any single cause. Religion must 
develop through the interaction of many elements, each 
complex in itself. One of the clues which will provide a 
fulcrum for our query is that there is an element of con- 
scious purpose which determines the advance man makes in 
religion. Of course, he does not see the end, and his aim is 
indefinite, but he does want something and moves forward, 
even blindly at times, to secure it. While this may be 
spoken of as an evolution, since, in general, there is dis- 
cernible an advance from the simple to the more complex, 
from the crude to the cultivated, several very important 
factors must be taken into consideration to guard the state- 
ment from false interpretation. In the first place, while the 
general trend is toward progress, there come periods of 
retrogression, of degeneracy, when any advance made seems 
in danger of being lost. This phenomenon is to be found in 
many places and makes it very difficult to speak of the whole 
movement as an evolution — if by that term is meant steady 
advance out of lower forms into higher. But when the 
human factor is taken into consideration and given a deter- 
minative place in the process, the whole situation begins to 
clear. Development for man, individual and social, is, as 
Professor George Galloway points out, a vocation."^ He 
may not be able to will anything he wants, and his choices 
may be circumscribed by his outlook and his environment, 
but — and this is the important point — he must will this or 
that, or nothing happens. And when we thus introduce into 
the evolution the personal factor, we are dealing with that 
which is more or less incalculable. But it is this very human 
element which makes our study one of abiding interest. We 
may at any moment come into the presence of a gifted seer 
who surprises us by his intuitions and fills us with new 
confidence in man and the religious life he has developed. 

*" Philosophy of Religion, chap. v. (Scribners, New York, 1914.) 



40 TFTE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

There is, however, another side to this problem of reli- 
gious development which cannot be neglected if we are to 
secure a view relatively complete. Does the whole burden 
of development rest on man alone? Is he the only one con- 
cerned in his advance toward a more satisfying life? All 
the religions have a very definite answer to this question, a 
decided negative. All believe that in one way or another the 
Divine has been seeking to make its will known to man. 
Thus the course of the history of religion is from this stand- 
point the progressive revelation of God to men, a revelation 
disclosed just as rapidly as men were able to receive it. 
There is, then, a divine pedagogy, God in his gracious pur- 
pose meeting man with his needs and giving him that satis- 
faction which makes him complete. It is a gradual process, 
but man is not alone in its realization. God himself, the 
Creator of man, is seen giving himself in ever fuller and 
fuller measure until, in the Christian revelation, we see him 
as he is in the face of Jesus Christ. 

If, as we have tried to show, the development of religion 
proceeds along with and is demanded by the enlarging needs 
of man, it must be at once evident that the stages in religious 
growth are coordinate with the stages of civilization and 
culture. Religious development cannot be understood apart 
from that of culture in general. The steps of the cultural 
movement are the steps in the development in religion. We 
shall follow the three stages as given by Professor Gallo- 
way, namely, the tribal, the national, and the universal." 

I. The Tribal. We do not know how man was organized 
socially in the beginnings of his life. There are theories 
according to which he lived promiscuously with his fellows, 
with no family life, but there is an influential body of opin- 
ion to-day which holds that a monogamous relation between 
a man and his one wife was the earliest form of relationship 
in society. But whatever may have been the fact in prehis- 
toric times, we know of no simpler form of union than the 

•"Philosophy of Religion, chap. ii. 



THE NATURE OF RELIGION 41 

tribe. It is spoken of as the *' rudimentary form" of social 
union, and is the form in which all primitive or savage 
peoples live to-day. In this stage the individual is next to 
nothing, and the group as a group is the end-all. There is 
little or no reflection on life and its meaning, and material 
interests force themselves on the attention so exclusively 
that little opportunity is offered for anything intellectual. 
Longfellow's "Hiawatha" is an idealization and never had 
its counterpart in reality. Savages simply do not have such 
thoughts and feelings, which are the outcome of a very dif- 
ferent social environment. The savage does not lead an 
idyllic life, and only appears to do so when we from a dis- 
tance far removed read into his crude, cramped life concep- 
tions entirely foreign to his mind. In this stage law is cus- 
tom, the members of the tribe being united by the blood-bond 
and each member following as a matter of course in the cus- 
tomary line. There is little or no individual initiative, and 
all feel the bond of mutual responsibility. What affects one 
affects all and the blame for what one does is shared by all. 
Piety, if the word can be used at all, consists in being loyal 
to the tribe and obeying its mandates. On this level man's 
interests are determined by the constant necessity of secur- 
ing enough to eat, and by watchfulness against the dangers 
of nature and the attacks of his enemies. Under these con- 
ditions the savage never rises above his material wants and 
desires, and his religion remains on that same low level. 

2. The National. Man could never get away from the 
lower stage by pure reflection, for he had not learned to 
think and had no incentive to do so. Some change induced 
from the outside was necessary to produce a new stage men- 
tally and religiously. A new set of needs must be created, 
and this actually c?me about by the disappearance of the 
tribe and the rise of the nation. We do not know exactly 
how this change was brought about, but conjecture has been 
able to make quite a satisfying picture of the process. War 
must have had much to do with it, when one tribe established 



42 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

its rule over other weaker ones, and tribes were brought 
together and cemented in defense against common enemies 
from without. IMigrations caused by over-population and 
the failure of sufficient subsistence cannot be left out as an 
important factor. But out of it came the state, with a cap- 
ital city which exercised authority over the country lying 
about. In such a state conditions of life differ greatly from 
those in a tribe. There is now a division of labor, the sol- 
dier and the priest, the artisan and the farmer emerging and 
taking their place in the social organism. Reading and writ- 
ing are now to be found among human accomplishments, 
and out of them grow chronology and the writing of annals. 

Such a civilization demands gods far different from those 
of the tribe. They must be stronger and wiser and more 
distinct. A certain division of labor is found among the 
divinities, and we come to have what are known as **depart- 
mental gods." With more complexity in society came gods 
with more attributes and a richer life. One of the great 
developments at this stage is social morality, and this has 
the important effect of moralizing the idea of God. The 
deities begin to be associated with moral ideals in a manner 
unknown before. With great officials in the nation, from 
the king himself to the lesser men who are in more immedi- 
ate contact with the masses of the people, we find the "mo- 
narchian idea" worked out among the gods, supreme gods 
lording it over the lesser divinities and so on down to gods 
which scarcely deserve the name. This is but a most gen- 
eral statement, but it may serve to indicate the manner in 
which the state of civilization is reflected in the organiza- 
tion of the pantheon. 

3. The Universal, Out of the national developed the uni- 
versal. The universal is the outgrowth of a deepening and 
individualizing of religion. As religion ceases to be merely 
the possession of a group as such and is seen to involve an 
individual relationship between the soul and his God, it be- 
comes, potentially at least, universal. What is good for a 



THE NATURE OF RELIGION 43 

man as an individual is good for another man until by impli- 
cation and in the ideal it begins its journey to claim the alle- 
giance of all men everywhere. Only a few of the religions 
have thus burst the nationalistic bonds and have sought to 
become international or universal. Most of the great reli- 
gions have remained through the ages attached to one people 
or nation. It is a distinct advance when they deepen and 
develop to such an extent that the very hope of their con- 
tinued existence seems to He in propagating them to the ends 
of the earth. This is the highest form of religion, and is 
to-day represented by three virile faiths, namely. Buddhism, 
Mohammedanism, and Christianity. These three, as repre- 
senting the missionary idea, must be the high points in 
our study. 

A last consideration must have to do with the method of 
procedure. We may well take it up here because the three 
stages of religious development just given point to the most 
convenient and most significant outline to be followed in the 
chapters which follow. Much has been written on the classi- 
fication of religions, and many schemes have been devised, 
but most of them fail to be convincing. They are of little 
practical use and do not give any helpful clue in organizing 
the material at hand. It seems best to take up animistic 
rehgion first, representing as it does the religion of man in 
the tribal form of organization. Following this the national 
religions may be studied. Here the problem of order is 
almost impossible of solution, if one desires to trace devel- 
opment and historical continuity in any religion or in any 
people. Two great families of religion are those of the 
Indo-European peoples and the Semitic peoples. But where 
shall we place Egyptian religion, which is in no sense Indo- 
European and only partially Semitic? How shall we study 
Buddhism, which sprang out of Aryan soil in India, but 
finally disappeared there and appeared among the so-called 
Turanian peoples in China, Tibet, Korea, and Japan? The 
only thing to do is to decide arbitrarily on a certain course, 



44 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

knowing full well that it cannot be entirely satisfactory. So, 
after having discussed the religion of the animistic peoples 
we shall take up the national religions, starting in by a study 
of the ancient faiths of Egypt and of Babylonia and Assyria. 
Then we may begin the journey through the broad field of 
the religions of the Indo-European peoples, those of ancient 
Greece and Rome, the religion of Zoroaster, Hinduism, and 
Buddhism. Having done this, we shall cross the mountains 
into Eastern Asia and examine the religions of China and 
Japan, in each case carrying on the story of Buddhism as 
found in these countries. This, then, clears the field for the 
religions of the Semitic peoples, Judaism and Islam. The 
last section will be devoted to an inquiry into the origins, the 
history, and significance of the Christian religion. The 
journey is a long one, but the student will be amply re- 
warded as he realizes that he deals with those matters which 
are deepest in the human heart, and which are of the greatest 
significance in tracing the history of man and his progress 
in civilization. 

Suggestions for Further Study 

Morris Jastrow, Jr , The Study of Religion (New York, 1901). 
George Galloway, The Philosophy of Religion (New York, 1914), 

Part I, The Nature and Development of Religion. 
George Albert Coe, The Psychology of Religion (Chicago, 1916). 
L. R. Farnell, The Evolution of Religion (New York, 1905). 
C P. Tiele, Elements of the Science of Religion, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 

1897). Out of print, to be found in library. 
J. B. Pratt, The Religious Consciousness (New York, 1920). 



CHAPTER II 
ANIMISTIC RELIGION 

Animistic Peoples and Their Habitat 

The religion we are about to describe has been called by 
various names. It has been spoken of as tribal or primitive 
religion, and also by the name we have used. Not any one 
is entirely satisfactory. Tribal religion is an accurate desig- 
nation because all the people who have this form of religion 
and have not advanced beyond it are in the tribal form of 
organization. It is only because one or two other terms 
penetrate a little deeper into the inner meaning of the beliefs 
and practices of these people that it is not used. Probably 
the most widely used designation at the present time is prim- 
itive religion. The difficulty is that what we are dealing 
with is not really primitive. The religion of the most back- 
ward peoples in the world gives undeniable evidences of de- 
velopment out of something more simple and crude. At best 
it only approximates the primitive, and is far removed from 
what might be described correctly by that word. There is 
objection also to the word "animistic" because that attitude 
of mind is not left behind when higher forms of religion 
are attained, and so is not peculiar to those who are at the 
religious stage which is designated by that name. But it is 
used here because it is the animistic outlook or interpreta- 
tion of their world which dominates all the thoughts and 
actions of the backward peoples. Their religion is the rela- 
tionship which these peoples have established between them- 
selves and certain of the spirits of their animism. Hence 
this term penetrates to the underlying philosophy of these 
peoples and has been chosen to designate their religion in 
these studies. 

45 



46 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

There is good reason why this form of religion should be 
most carefully investigated, and why it should be studied 
first. As has already been pointed out, all the more fully 
developed religions of the world have emerged out of these 
more primitive forms. They have all passed through the 
animistic stage and cannot be understood without a knowl- 
edge of this period of their development. In every case it 
will be necessary to describe that stage of each religion be- 
fore going on to the forms it has later assumed. In this 
way we shall be dealing with animistic religion frequently 
and not only in this chapter. And even among the most civ- 
ilized and cultured peoples many remnants or vestiges of this 
early stage are still to be found. Superstitions of all kinds, 
many of them innocent and others far more serious in their 
eflfect, abound. The good luck to be expected from an old 
horse-shoe and the ill luck which flows from the number 
thirteen will suggest a score of other superstitions known 
and more or less believed in among our own friends and rela- 
tions. What is the meaning of these strange ''survivals"? 
No adequate explanation can be given without an under- 
standing of the animistic outlook. These furtive beliefs 
have only been handed down because in each generation re- 
ceptive minds respond eagerly to such stimuli, minds which 
have failed to rise to the stage from which these puerile 
notions have been banished. But they are with us far and 
wide and it becomes our duty to recognize the large place 
they occupy and understand their significance in our 
civilization. 

No census has been taken of the animistic peoples as a 
whole. We know how many there are in the United States, 
in India, and in some other countries, but for the most part 
they have Hved until so recently outside the pale of civiliza- 
tion that any scientific enumeration was not even thought of. 
Now that the whole world has been parceled out and the 
uncultured peoples are under the supervision of one or 
another of the advanced nations we may expect that more 



ANIMISTIC RELIGION 47 

certain knowledge of the numbers of animists may be forth- 
coming. At the present time we must depend upon esti- 
mates. And when estimates differ widely we can only say 
that we do not know much about the subject. One estimate 
gives a hundred and fifty-seven millions^ and another a hun- 
dred and seventy-three millions.'' At any rate they form a 
not inconsiderable part of the population of the earth. In 
no place is the population dense, the very conditions of their 
life making anything approaching overcrowding impossible. 
They are scattered more or less over both hemispheres. 
No continent, not even Europe, is without some representa- 
tives of these uncultured tribes. We have on this side of 
the Atlantic the Eskimos and the many tribes of aboriginal 
Indians, both in North and South America. The largest 
single group of animists is to be found in Africa, where the 
various Negro and Bantu tribes occupy the great body of 
the continent. On the mainland of Asia are various aborig- 
inal tribes, such as the Ainu in Japan, the Lolos, and others 
in the mountain and desert fastnesses of northern, western, 
and southwestern China, and the interesting hill tribes of 
India, the Bhils, the Ghonds, and many others. In all these 
cases the more primitive peoples have been displaced by the 
coming of those who, emigrating from some previous abode, 
have taken possession of the country and driven the former 
occupants back into the more inaccessible and undesirable 
sections of the country. There they have remained much 
as they were centuries, or even a millennium, ago. But, 
again, in the island world of the Southern Pacific conditions 
are much as they are in Africa. A large population of ani- 
mistic tribesmen, out of touch through ages with peoples of 
a higher civilization, live a life which has taken its form 
with no outside influence to turn it from its natural devel- 
opment. The great islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and 



* Encyclopaedia Britannica, nth edition, article, "Missions." 
'Zeller, as quoted in Warneck's History of Protestant Missions, 
loth German edition. 



48 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

New Guinea, not to mention the aboriginal tribes in the Phil- 
ippines, New Zealand, and Australia, furnish the largest part 
of the population of this ocean world. But besides these 
are the people of the hundreds of small islands, some little 
better than coral reefs, scattered over the face of the broad 
Pacific. Coming now very rapidly under the influence of 
Western nations, these people are showing many signs of 
change. They are still for the most part in the animistic 
stage, but this condition must soon be exchanged for another 
as they come into more intimate contact with the commerce 
and education and religion of the Western world. The con- 
tact already had has been both beneficial and baneful, and 
the serious question is, whether the last end of these simple 
people may not be worse than the first. It all depends upon 
the side of our culture and civilization which succeeds in 
making itself felt most powerfully as these people leave their 
old moorings and enter the troubled stream of modem life. 
The great variety of animistic peoples scattered over the 
world is an embarrassment when their religious life is to be 
studied. Each tribe has religious practices and beliefs which 
differ from those of others. It would seem that the only 
way in which the religion of these people could be ade- 
quately presented would be to take each tribe or group of 
similar tribes separately and give an account of its religious 
rites and beliefs. This is the only way in which the great 
national religions can be treated, so individual are they and 
so different in their history and outlook. But while the 
religion of a tribe is not the same as that of others the 
case is quite different from that of the more developed 
faiths. The differences are comparatively slight. As soon 
as certain superficial differences are noted an almost monot- 
onous sameness is to be discovered. Probably owing to the 
lack of suppleness in the thought-life of the animist little 
diversity is to be found. Thought is weak and covers a 
very limited range. It is not introspective, nor does it de- 
velop into reflection. Its reactions are spontaneous and 



ANIMISTIC RELIGION 49 

naive, and hence more or less alike even among peoples sep- 
arated by half the circumference of the globe. This being 
the case, it is not necessary to describe many of the varieties 
of practice to come to an understanding of the meaning of 
animistic religion. 

Before taking up the various aspects of savage belief and 
life it may be well to call attention to several of its more 
general characteristics. It has been suggested that the reli- 
gion of peoples living in the tribal form of organization ex- 
hibits three marked peculiarities, that it is traditional, nat- 
ural, and spontaneous. 

1. Traditional. These forms of religion, like the culture 
out of which they spring, have no written language and no 
literature. This means no history and no possibiHty of any 
significant and conscious progress. This is just what we 
find. The religion of these peoples is about what it was a 
thousand years ago. No advance can be made until the ex- 
isting social order has been changed into something higher. 
Religion may do this, but it must be religion brought in from 
the outside. So long as the only means of passing on from 
one generation to another the accumulated wisdom of the 
past is by word of mouth there is no hope of building up 
civilization which shall show marks of steady improvement. 
A traditional civilization is always stationary; it only rises 
to higher levels when its acts can be recorded and trans- 
mitted to posterity in forms which are permanent. 

2. Natural. By which is meant that the natural desires 
are about as far as the savage goes in his outreach. He is 
of necessity so occupied in the material and physical that 
no other needs are felt. Enough for himself and his family 
to eat, care of his animals, protection against his enemies, 
the satisfaction of his primary impulses — these are about all 
he thinks about. His needs are simple and crude and can 
never become more complex and refined so long as he con- 
tinues to live this fife. He is not awake to himself and the 
latent possibihties of his deeper nature. Spiritual attain- 



50 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

ment is denied him because he has never felt any aspiration 
after the things of the spirit. This condition is not acci- 
dental, it is inevitable so long as people remain on this level. 
We are dealing, then, with man not at his best, but man 
undeveloped and curtailed and cramped and dwarfed. He 
is a man, to be sure, but a man without the touch which 
lifts him out of the purely natural into the sphere of the 
spirit. 

3. Spontaneous. They can point to no founder and no 
crucial turning-points which have determined the direction 
they should take. They have grown spontaneously as a 
feature of the life and culture of the tribe, and as uncon- 
sciously as any other feature. Like everything else in the 
life about him, the animistic savage takes rehgion for 
granted, as he does the hill which stands opposite his village 
or the chief of the tribe. Everything to his mind has always 
been as it is now and needs no further justification or expla- 
nation. Religion is perfectly normal and as much a part of 
his Hfe as sleeping at night or going to battle when an enemy 
approaches. Spontaneity, together with the other two char- 
acteristics just mentioned, shows us religion at its lowest 
level and almost at a standstill. Variations are to be found, 
but they are variations within the limits just given by these 
three descriptive terms. 

Animism and the Mysterious Power 

All people believe in spirits. No degraded tribe has been 
discovered without it. These spirits are everywhere, in the 
sky above, on the earth beneath, in the depths of the waters, 
and in the dark caverns and recesses of the mysterious 
mountains. All nature is tenanted by an invisible host of 
spiritual beings not far away from man and likely at any 
moment to make their presence felt in any one of a hundred 
ways. It is easy to understand why the savage should 
think that animals are possessed of spirits like ourselves, 
but it is not at first sight evident why the inanimate objects 



ANIMISTIC RELIGION 51 

of nature should be so possessed. Every river and lake, 
mountain and hill, tree and shrub, stick and stone, is the 
dwelling place of some spirit. The clouds, the stars, the 
sun and the moon likewise are what they are because of 
indwelling spirit. Savage man lives in a densely populated 
world. Not only are these spirits the invisible souls of the 
objects around him, but there are legions of free spirits 
flitting around in the air, homeless wanderers, not belong- 
ing in any one place, but at liberty to travel and range over 
a wide area. He may know where many spirits are by the 
objects which they inhabit, but that does not help him when 
he is in the forest or crosses a river. He cannot tell when 
and where a mischievous imp may trip him as he walks or 
some deviHsh ogre pull him under the surface of the water 
and cause him to drown. And then there is the smallpox 
demon who may attack his village, or the blight which may 
destroy his meager crop. Whatever happens is caused by 
a spiritual agency. "What spirit is it who has killed my 
cow?" asks the savage, or "Who was it that brought the 
flood last spring?" The savage, in other words, is an ani- 
mist; he lives a world that is aHve and throbbing with 
vitality all the time. 

Now, while he believes in spirits this primitive man is 
not spiritual in the true sense. He has not learned to dis- 
tinguish between a material and a spiritual world. To him 
there is no essential difference between the visible and the 
invisible. He may not be able to see the spirit, but it might 
be seen, he thinks. He looks upon it as a more or less thin 
vapory substance which has qualities not possessed by the 
heavier, tangible things he sees, but is of the same general 
character. Very naturally he identifies the soul with the 
breath, for when a man ceases to breathe, his spirit or soul 
has left. This breath cannot usually be seen, but it can be 
felt, and, on occasion when condensation takes place, it has 
visible form and can be seen flowing from a man's mouth 
and nostrils. He identifies this with the soul of the man 



52 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

himself; he has not risen above the purely physical in his 
explanation of the spirit world. 

That dreams have played an important part in making 
the realm of the spirit real to him there can be httle doubt. 
A dream is just as real an experience to people living on 
this plane as the experience of their waking moments. 
They or their spirits actually do the things they dream 
about. While they dream their bodies may remain in the 
place where they lay down, but their spirits have traveled 
far and have passed through strange and wonderful expe- 
riences. There is no doubt about it ; it is altogether real to 
them. The only difference between dreams and death is 
that when one dreams his spirit has departed for a season 
only, while when a man dies his spirit does not come back. 
Flowing naturally from this is his unfaihng belief in a life 
after death. He continues to hve on, in a world which he 
has visited before. It is perfectly natural for him to think 
that way. His ideas may differ according to natural condi- 
tions and social environment, but the belief is there, un- 
quenchable and strong. 

Without attempting to go back into stages of development 
man has left behind, we find in the mind of these peoples 
today a conception which may explain the belief in spirits 
and other ideas which are in his mind. It is the conception 
of a mysterious pervasive power present in the universe and 
recognized in many forms of activity. The familiar name 
by which it is known is taken from Polynesia, where it is 
called mana. But it is known by other names, manitu by 
the Algonquian family of Indians, orenda by the Iroquoian 
family, and wakan by the Sioux, and by still other names 
elsewhere. But by whatever name it is called it is looked 
upon as about the same thing. The word matm came into 
our vocabulary through the classic statement of Bishop R. H. 
Codrington, in his volume, The Melanesians. "It is a power 
or influence, not physical, and in a way supernatural; but 
it shows itself in physical force, or in a kind of power or 



ANIMISTIC RELIGION 53 

excellence which a man possesses. This mana is not fixed 
in anything, and can be conveyed in almost anything; but 
spirits, whether disembodied souls or supernatural beings, 
have it and can impart it; and it essentially belongs to per- 
sonal beings to originate it, though it may act through the 
medium of water, or a stone, or a bone.'" Professor C. H. 
Toy sums up its meaning in this short sentence : "It is, in a 
word, a term for the force residing in any object."* 

It is said that the conception is not to be found among the 
most degraded savages, that some further development 
seems to be necessary before men rise to the thought. It is 
true also that as civilization advances the idea is laid aside 
and ceases to function as a definite belief. But among ani- 
mistic peoples as they are found the world over the idea of 
this quasi-personal force is present and very influential as 
an explanation of about all that happens. Men are alive 
and do things, chiefs have authority, a tree puts out fruit 
and leaves, an animal secures its prey, a fisherman is suc- 
cessful in his catch, and a thousand other things are what 
they are and accomplish what is done, all because of this 
mysterious power. As we proceed in our study of the reli- 
gion of these people, of their divine beings and their wor- 
ship, of magic and fetishism, of totemism and tabu, re- 
course must be had to this conception, for without it there 
would be no means of explaining the results which appear 
and the activities and repressions which make up the life of 
the animistic peoples. 

The Higher Powers of Animistic Religion 

What we have been describing is not religion but the raw 
material out of which religion is made. Coming to the more 
definite question of the objects of worship, the first thing 
to be said is that they are the spirits of their animism. Not 

"The Melanesians, p. 119. 

* Introduction to the History of Religions, p. loi. (Ginn, Boston, 
1913.) 



54 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

all of them are worshiped, but the more primitive peoples 
know of no other objects they may worship. Let us beware 
just here of concluding that these poor people do much 
thinking as we should call it to-day. Their religion is far 
more a matter of the emotions than of the intellect. Their 
minds are greatly confused, and what they do depends far 
more on the impulse of the moment and the excitement 
born of a dance or a period of fasting or an impressive 
ceremonial than on sober thought. The instability of sav- 
age nerves is mentioned frequently by writers on the life 
of primitive people. Their reactions are largely of the 
high-strung, emotional type and cannot be understood with- 
out taking this into consideration. As a result their choice 
of divinities and the worship accorded them is a choice 
determined by the emotional reaction of the savage to his 
environment. He is aware of scores and hundreds of 
spirits around him, he turns to some of them in worship, 
and this becomes his religion. 

We do not know what spirits he worshiped first. Herbert 
Spencer's attempt to prove that ancestors were the first 
gods men worshiped has failed to convince. All we know 
is that man is found worshiping a great variety of beings 
and doing it rather indiscriminately. The question of inter- 
est, however, is to determine why certain objects were 
chosen instead of others, for, although the savage may not 
know why, there must be some reason for his choice. There 
can be no question that the only being he would worship 
must be one which for one reason or another appears to 
him as possessed of power superior to his own. For this 
reason the gods of these peoples are frequently called 
Powers. That is the necessary and almost the only nec- 
essary qualification. In wisdom, skill, cunning, as well as 
in physical prowess he must exceed the might of man. 
This is determined at times in ways which to us appear 
naive and utterly inadequate. Mere physical force may 
not seem to us to be indicative of superiority, but it does 



ANIMISTIC RELIGION 55 

to a savage. But besides this he is struck by what is 
strange, uncanny, mysterious, or even grotesque and queer. 
All these aspects of the things he finds go beyond his power 
of comprehension and suggest strength, and often for no 
other reason than their mysteriousness. And in this way 
the pantheon, if it can be dignified by that name, of savage 
people is not consistent and the same. New objects are con- 
stantly attracting the attention of the animist and taking 
the place of other powers now shrunk down to more ordi- 
nary dimensions. 

Inanimate objects are worshiped wherever animists are 
found. Trees are alive and provide shade and food — should 
they not be worshiped? "Although the tree is rooted to 
one spot, it responds to every influence without. Swayed 
by the breeze, or smitten by the storm, it is never at rest. 
Murmurs are heard in its leaves, or its branches creak and 
writhe as in agony ; sounds are emitted from the gaunt stem 
or hollow trunk — voices, the savage doubts not, of the in- 
dwelling spirit whose life seems permanently associated 
with the fixed tree.'"^ Stones are also widely worshiped. 
To a savage a stone is no dead inanimate object as to us. It 
is so hard and sometimes so strange in color and shape that 
the savage is deeply fascinated and turns in real adoration 
to it and asks for some boon. Added to this is the fact that 
some of these stones fell from heaven and hence must 
surely be divine. Meteorites have been the objects of adora- 
tion in many countries. "Great is Diana of the Ephesians,'' 
was the shout of devoted worshipers of an ugly aerolite 
within the beautiful temple built to house it. Another such 
stone was that of Cybele, the Great Mother of the Gods, 
which was brought to Rome in B. C. 204, when the city was 
in danger of attack by Hannibal. These illustrations show 
the influence of stone worship in religions which had passed 
out of the stage we are now considering. In Nigeria "when 
men are sick in town, we cast lots, and then give food to 

^ Edward Clodd, Animism, p. 72. 



56 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

the stones. We also give them pahii-wine or gin."* But 
besides these, plants and mountains and fire and winds and 
waters are objects of adoration, and in each case there is 
some reason for the choice. 

The greater objects of nature, the over-arching sky, the 
dazzling sun, the resplendent moon, the distant stars, all 
come in for their share of attention in the cult. But it must 
be said that the lesser objects of nature, more nearly con- 
nected with their daily wants and work, occupy the atten- 
tion of these simple people far more than the grand, awe- 
inspiring heavenly bodies. At a later time, when religion 
had achieved a higher level, these greater objects came to 
their own. The last form assumed by paganism before it 
went down before Christianity in the fourth century was 
the worship of Sol Invictus, the "Invincible Sun." 

If objects inanimate serve as divinities for the savage, 
how much more animals, full of life and movement and 
cunning. The majesty of the lion, the ferocity of the 
tiger, the wisdom of the elephant, the cunning of the fox, 
the mysteriousness of the snake led in each case to an atti- 
tude approaching worship. They inspired fear and needed 
propitiation. This form of worship was at times carried 
over into more highly developed religions, as we shall see 
strikingly illustrated in the religion of Egypt. Savages 
attribute to animals a wisdom and cunning far beyond their 
due. This lifts them up to a plane as high, if not higher, 
than man himself and makes worship seem quite natural. 
And even where actual w^orship is not paid to animals, they 
are held sacred and marks of respect and veneration are 
shown. 

The worship of human beings is widely spread, though 
it is too much to say that it is universal. Living men, 
chiefs and kings, emperors and saints, have been deified and 
worshiped. A great man is possessed of power of the 
same kind as causes one to tremble in the presence of a 

' Edward Clodd, op. cit., p. 79, 



ANIMISTIC RELIGION 57 

strong animal or a rushing torrent, and hence may be wor- 
shiped. But it is to the cult of the dead to which attention 
is now specially called. Historical personages, legendary 
or mythical ancestors among many peoples have been looked 
upon as legitimate objects of worship. Among savages, 
however, as well as among those more civilized, a man's 
own ancestors have been raised to a high place among his 
gods. A careful distinction must be made between rever- 
ence and worship. In many cases the attitude is not that of 
a worshiper at all, but when it does rise to that height it is 
veritable worship. 

Death makes a difference. A man cannot be the same 
after he dies that he was when alive. Not hampered by his 
body, he is free to roam at large. He has powers which 
were not his before. He has not, however, become a spirit- 
ual being, in our sense of the word, even though he is invis- 
ible. He has the same desires and wants. Food and drink, 
clothing and weapons, and in the case of the great man, 
servants and attendants are as necessary as before. He 
has not passed beyond the pale of his former relationships 
and knows quite well what is going on. It is even thought 
that his condition in the other world is determined, at least 
in part, by the treatment he continues to receive from his 
family. Should he fail to receive what he believes to be 
his due, his anger is aroused and he may inflict sore chas- 
tisement on his relatives here below. It is chiefly those of 
the past two or three generations who are worshiped. Even 
in China, where ancestor worship has been carried along 
through all the stages of their development in civilization, 
after the second or third generation the ancestral tablets are 
removed to the clan hall. When memory becomes weak 
or fails, the ancestor fades out of the life of the living and 
his place is taken by those more recently lost. 

What of the motives which actuate men when they wor~ 
ship their departed dead ? Undoubtedly love and the desire 
to treat well and provide for their welfare have had influ- 



58 THE RKLIGIOXS OF MAXKIXD 

ence in the long continuance of the custom, but the general 
testimony is that fear is as powerful if not far more so as 
a motive to-day. It is well to keep on good terms with the 
dead. No one can tell what might happen if the sacrifices 
were neglected. As spirits, resentful of the neglect and 
unfaithfulness of their descendants, they would undoubtedly 
bring ill-luck and catastrophe upon the living family. This 
form of worship is distinctively social and tends to keep 
the family together and gives its members common inter- 
ests and a common sanction for their ethical standards. 
These must be Hved up to, or the family may suffer. In 
this way ancestor worship has been of benefit to the race. 

One of the most singular and interesting features of the 
religion of savages is fetishism. Our term comes from the 
Portuguese feitigo (Latin, facere, to make), a word applied 
by Portuguese sailors to the objects held sacred by West 
African natives, which were regarded by the Europeans as 
charms or talismans. What does it mean in modem reli- 
gious nomenclature? It is very confusing, so much so that 
some have been tempted to give it up entirely. The philos- 
opher Comte makes it mean what we have called by the 
general name of animism. Doctor Nassau and Miss Kings- 
ley have given the name to all the religious practices of the 
West African Negroes. It is not in this sense that we use 
the word here, but in a much narrower sense. As Profes- 
sor Menzies says, *Tt is best to limit it to the worship of 
such natural objects as are reverenced, not for their own 
power or excellence, but because they are supposed to be 
occupied each by a spirit."^ 

A fetish may be any natural object whatever, but there 
must be some reason why the native selects a particular 
object, something about it which appeals to him and shows 
that it possesses supernatural power. Something strikes 
him as being out of the ordinary, and that is enough; he 
will take it as his fetish. "So the fetish consists of a queer- 



History of Religion, p. 33. 



I 



ANIMISTIC RELIGION 59 

shaped stone, a bright bead, a stick, parrots' feathers, a 
root, claw, seed, bone, or any curious or conspicuous object." 
Professor Tylor relates the story of how a man chose a 
stone about as big as a hen's egg for his fetish. "He was 
going out on important business, but crossing the thresh- 
old he trod on this stone and hurt himself. 'Ha, ha! 
thought he, 'art thou here?' So he took the stone, and it 
helped him through his undertaking for days.'" 

In West Africa a fetish is not so much found as made 
or concocted by the witch-doctor or medicine-man. We may 
quote from Doctor R. H. Nassau: 

"The next step, the admixture of the ingredients, is secret. 
They are ground or triturated, or reduced to ashes, and 
only the ash or charcoal of their wood is used. Among the 
common ingredients are colored earths, chalk, or potter's 
blue clay. Beyond the usual constituents constantly em- 
ployed there are other single ones, which vary according 
to the end to be obtained by the user of the fetish — for one 
end, as elsewhere already mentioned, some portion of an 
enemy's body; for another, an ancestor's powdered brain; 
for another, the liver or gall-bladder of an animal ; for an- 
other, a finger of a dead first-born child; for another, a 
certain fish; and so on for a thousand possibilities. These 
ingredients are compounded in secret, and with public drum- 
ming, dancing, songs to the spirit, looking into limpid water 
or a mirror, and sometimes with the addition of jugglers' 
tricks, for example, the eating of fire. 

"The ingredients having been thus properly prepared, 
and the spirit, according to the magician's declarations, 
having associated itself lovingly with these mixed articles, 
they and it are put into the cavity of the selected horn or 
other hollow thing (a gourd, a nut shell, and so forth). 
They are packed in firmly. A black resin is plastered over 
the opening. . . . While the resin is still soft, the red tail- 

•Both quotations from Haddon, Magic and Fetishism, p. 73- (Con- 
stable, London, igio.) 



6o THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

feathers of the gray African parrot are stuck into it. This 
description is typical.'" 

Now, the fetish is very much like a man. It possesses 
personality and will ; it can feel and knows the meaning of 
anger and resentment as well as gratitude and kindness. It 
is also quite human in that while the particular spirit which 
belongs to the natural object can belong to no other, it can 
be and is sometimes separated from the object and seems to 
disappear. Then the natural object ceases to be of any 
value; that is, it ceases to be a fetish. Everything depends 
on the presence of the spirit to make the fetish object a 
source of benefit to its possessor. 

The fetish is treated as an object of worship, has offerings 
made to it, and is addressed in prayer. But this is only a 
part of the procedure. If the ends sought are not gained 
in this way, the attitude changes and the fetish is coaxed 
and even commanded to bring about the desired result. If 
this does not succeed, the little thing is scolded for its dis- 
obedience and may be compelled to submit to a whipping. 
And, finally, if this vigorous treatment proves unsuccess- 
ful, the conclusion is reached that the spirit has departed, 
or at any rate that some more powerful spirit is interfering 
with the operation of the fetish. About all there is to do 
after such a discovery is made is to lay it aside or throw 
it away altogether. The savage does not lose faith in his 
theory or in the practice; he has only come to the conclu- 
sion that the particular fetish he had is of no use — he must 
proceed to find another. 

A number of theories have been advanced concerning the 
origin of fetishism and its relation to the development of 
religion. That it is a very low form of religion no one can 
deny. This has led some to the conclusion that it is the 
earliest form of religion, the crude beginning of man's 
attempt to relate himself to powers recognized as stronger 
than himself. Others feel that it is a backward step from a 

"Fetishism in West Africa, p. iiif. (Duckworth, London, 1904.) 



ANIMISTIC RELIGION 6i 

form of religion which was developing in the right direc- 
tion, but which received this serious setback. Professor 
Menzies speaks of a fetish as "a deity at his disposal," not 
above man, but below him, which if it will not do what man 
wants at his request, must be made to do so by coercion. 
So far as the origin of this strange form of "religion" is 
concerned, we shall probably never be able to find a satis- 
factory explanation. But we may do that which is of more 
significance, realize its meaning and evaluate it as one of 
the manifestations of man's need of help from higher 
powers. We can only come to such an understanding, how- 
ever, by studying fetishism in its relationship to magic, 
which will appear in a later section of the chapter. Suffice 
it to say here that fetishism is a deadening influence in the 
life of the animist, and is one of the factors which tend to 
keep him down in the mire of dread and apprehension in 
which his life is so largely lived. 

Before leaving the subject of the higher powers which 
are worshiped by animistic peoples we must take up a ques- 
tion of real interest, but at the same time of great difficulty. 
It is the theory that in addition to the many spirits and 
demons of his animism the savage possesses a conception of 
a supreme spirit over and above them all. The controversy 
which has raged is not so much over the presence of the 
conception, which is quite generally recognized, but has to 
do with the origin and significance of the belief among 
savage peoples. Andrew Lang brought the whole question 
to a focus in his volume The Making of Religion. His 
claim is that, while the savage peopled the universe with 
spirits in accordance with his general animistic outlook, by 
another channel, through a kind of intuition, he placed an 
All-Father in the supreme place far above the world of his 
spirits. It is easy to see that this conception lends itself 
readily to the theory of a primitive monotheism, that before 
man believed in higher powers in the form of the spirits of 
his animism he had in his mind a single being, the creator 



62 THE RELIGIONS OF MAXKIXU 

of all, the one on whom he was dependent and to whom he 
offered worship. It is acknowledged at the same time that 
no tribe of savages is to be found with this pure belief 
to-day. In every case their world is filled with countless 
spirits and demons with whom they are intimately related 
in the affairs of everyday life. And what belief remains of 
this Creative Father is exceedingly hazy. It is far in the 
background of their thinking and not closely connected with 
what they plan and carry out in their ordinary employ- 
ments. They do not even worship this far-distant being. 
They seem to feel that he is too far away to be interested 
in the things which concern them. He is there as a con- 
ception and that is about all. They are not monotheists in 
reality. The presence of the belief does not seem to raise 
their thoughts, nor to prevent them from a thousand prac- 
tices which are utterly out of keeping with such a lofty 
conception. 

But it is there. What shall be done with it? It runs 
counter to Tylor's theory that only as man advanced out of 
cruder conceptions could he conceive of a god in the mono- 
theistic sense. One suggestion which has been made is that 
the idea is not original in the savage mind at all, but has been 
put there through contact with Christian missionaries. This 
may have been the case in some places, even where the 
people have no memory of any such obligation to the white 
man from across the seas. The memory of people who 
live by tradition is very short and confused. But it would 
be very reckless to claim that this was the only source of 
the belief. It is too widely extended and too deeply im- 
bedded in the popular consciousness to be accounted for in 
that way. Andrew Lang's own explanation is not alto- 
gether satisfying, not so much because primitive man could 
not think monotheistically if the thought were suggested to 
him, but because it seems so utterly unlike anything else in 
his development and so useless in his life, as the relation- 
ship which he holds to the conception amply demonstrates. 



ANIMISTIC RELIGION 63 

We do not know how it arose. It may have been by the 
legendary embellishment of the traditions of a great tribal 
hero. The myth-making tendency is always at work and 
seeks to explain origins and striking phenomena by telling 
stories about natural objects, animals, and men, and making 
them creators and saviours of men and tribes. But what- 
ever may be the correct explanation, we cannot go far wrong 
by tying up this phenomenon with others more easily under- 
stood which have their explanation in the working of the 
principle of analogy. This is his principle of accounting for 
things, and the only one of which we may feel sure. He has 
his intuitions, but intuitions are strongly emotional and are 
not likely to lead to what is distinctly an intellectual con- 
ception. What it does show is that man has the capacity 
for such high thinking and gives evidence of it even in his 
primitive state. He was made for monotheism and gives 
promise of attaining it, by even these vague thoughts which 
point in that direction. 

Are the gods or higher powers of animistic religion good 
gods? What, in other words, is their character? We 
already have a clue; the powers partake of the character 
of the nature from which they are taken, and the simple 
fact is nature has no moral character. It is not moral nor 
immoral, but nonmoral; it is neutral ethically. There is 
another side to the question: nature may not be good or 
evil in a high moral sense, but she does not treat people in 
the same way on all occasions. Sometimes she is like a 
tender mother or a beautiful summer afternoon, when peace 
reigns everywhere and no sign of disturbance appears on 
the horizon. But nature has other moods and may become 
as fierce and ravenous as a wild beast, ''red in tooth and 
claw." A West Indian hurricane, a tornado, an earthquake, 
a tidal wave, a volcanic eruption all represent another side, 
which is very different from the calm and quiet of an au- 
tumn sunset. Yet all come from the same source — what 
can the savage think of nature and the spirits who are so 



64 thp: religioxs of maxkixd 

kind and also so destructive ? In his mind they may have 
a common origin, but he distinguishes between the spirits 
which are beneficent and kind and the demons which are 
constantly seeking to do him harm. 

The strange thing, however, is that the mind of the sav- 
age is occupied far more with the demons whose influence 
he is seeking to escape than the good spirits which might 
be depended on to take his side and accomplish his desire. 
It is exceeding doubtful whether, before man had begun 
to till the soil and thus formulate the conception of the 
gods and goddesses of fertility and agriculture, his mind 
was not so occupied with the malignant spirits which were 
constantly on the watch to do him injury that little oppor- 
tunity was offered for thought about the good spirits whom 
he might have discovered. But when the age of agriculture 
is reached unmistakable signs indicate that the soil which 
furnishes food for man and beast is looked upon as kindly. 
"Mother-Earth" is the term used to express this feeling of 
gratitude and dependence. She at least could be depended 
on. But even then the fear of the evil spirits which bring 
blight and drought and the grasshopper is not absent. He 
has confidence in certain spirits, but he lives a life of fear 
nevertheless, a life not to be envied as idyllic by those who 
live under more favorable conditions. So long as man 
remains in the tribal form of organization he seems unable 
to rise above the purely natural into the realm of ethical 
good. He has his standards of action, and the moral does 
enter in and determine to some extent his conduct, but, to 
use Professor Galloway's words, "There are no instances 
of the evolution of an ethical religion by a tribal group.'"" 

TOTEMISM AND TaBU 

Our main interest is religion, but closely connected with 
the religion of animistic peoples are customs and practices 
without which their life — and consequently their religion — 

"Philosophy of Religion, p. 108. 



ANIMISTIC RELIGION 65 

would be very different. One of these is totemism. Now, 
a totem is an animal (or a plant or even, in a few cases, an 
inanimate object) very closely related to a group, which 
because of that relationship, holds it as something sacred. 
The word "totem" comes from the language of the Ojibway 
Indians (Chippewa) and signifies "a, group." This relation 
of the group to its totem separates it from other groups, 
each with its own totem. It thus became a form of social 
organization determining many features of the life of the 
tribe. It is found developed most fully among the Amer- 
ican Indians and the aboriginal tribes of Australia, but clear 
indications of its presence are to be discovered in many 
other regions. There are those who believe that totemism 
is a stage of development through which all peoples have 
passed, and that it is essential in order to explain many 
features of subsequent development. The difficulty in de- 
termining this fact is that what may seem to be a survival 
of totemism may turn out to be only a survival of ordinary 
animal worship. 

Totemism is so complex and multiform that no attempt 
can be made to describe it here. Its connection with reli- 
gion, however, may be pointed out. The totem animal, to 
which the totem group believes itself related, is frequently 
regarded as the ancestor of the group. There is no diffi- 
culty among savages to believe in so close a relationship 
between men and animals. They are so much alike that pas- 
sage from one species to another is not strange nor unheard 
of in his tales repeated by the fireside. As the ancestor of a 
group of men and women the animal may even be wor- 
shiped. It must not be killed or maltreated. The only 
exception to this rule is that among some peoples the totem 
animal is killed on certain important occasions and eaten 
sacramentally by all who belong to that totem clan. They 
look upon it as a reestablishment of the bond between the 
group and its totem, thus insuring friendly relations during 
the time to come. But even where this custom does not 



66 THE RELIGIONS OF IMAXKIXD 

prevail and no worship is offered, the people are bound to- 
gether closely and look upon what they do religiously as 
well as in other ways as a common act. A common obliga- 
tion holds them together and leads them to feel a sense of 
mutual obligation and responsibihty. 

Closely connected with totemism are several other cus- 
toms most important in the life of the savage. There is, in 
the first place, exogamy, or marriage outside the totem clan. 
This custom is very widely spread and is one of the most 
beneficial provisions in savage life. It effectually prevents 
intermarriage between close relatives — effectually, for the 
savage does not break over these unwritten but absolutely 
binding customs. The origin of exogamy is unknown. How 
did such a beneficial rule come into existence among people 
so far down in the social scale? Professor Wilhelm Wundt, 
in his Elements of Folk Psychology, disagrees violently 
with the theory that exogamy arose with the conscious in- 
tention of avoiding marriage within the bonds of near rela- 
tionship, as beneficial as the custom proved to be. He holds 
that a scholar like Professor J. G. Frazer ascribes far too 
much intelligence and foresight to men in this backward 
condition. The complicated organization of social Hfe to 
which exogamy belongs is the result of a long development 
and not the deliberate plan of the so-called "wise ancestors" 
of the present-day savage. It is hard to avoid Professor 
Wundt's conclusion that "the phenomena arose in the course 
of a long period of time, out of conditions immanent in the 
life and cult of these tribes."" 

Among a great many savage peoples certain rites of initia- 
tion are practiced upon young men and women. When at 
the time of puberty they pass out of childhood into man- 
hood and womanhood they are initiated into the secret lore 
of their people. Then is disclosed to them the meaning of 
customs and practices previously withheld, and they are 
admitted fully into the life of the tribe. The ceremonies 

"P. i66. (Macmillan, New York, 1916.) 



ANIMISTIC RELIGION (^y 

are long and complicated and subject the initiates to great 
pain and weird and disgusting ordeals. Accompanied by- 
noise and dances which render the night hideous, the ritual 
is performed in strict adherence to the traditions handed 
down from generation to generation. These ceremonies are 
largely social, but some of the secrets divulged are of a 
religious nature, having to do with sacred objects and the 
cult connected with them. 

Tabu (taboo) comes from the Polynesian tapu, which 
means "sacred" or "prohibited." Thus the term means, as 
a noun, a prohibition placed upon contact with or use of 
certain things set aside as peculiarly sacred. Its connection 
with totemism is that the totem is "tabu" to the members of 
that totem clan, but tabu has a far wider application than 
that. It is a widespread idea, and all over the world the 
practice is in full force, affecting the acts and plans of men 
in almost all their relationships. An illustration may be 
taken from the Todas, a backward people in South India, 
whose religion centers around a dairy-ritual. "Many, though 
not all, of their buffaloes are sacred, and their milk may not 
be drunk. The reason why it may not be drunk anthropolo- 
gists may cast about to discover, but the Todas themselves 
do not know. All that they know, and are concerned to 
know, is that things would somehow all go wrong if anyone 
were foolish enough to commit such a sin. So in the Toda 
temple, which is a dairy, the Toda priest, who is the dairy- 
man, sets about rendering the sacred products harmless. . . . 
Thus the ritual is essentially precautionary. A taboo is the 
hinge of the whole affair.""'' 

The question may be asked relative to tabu, why the pro- 
hibition is placed upon an object, thus rendering it sacre(J 
and inviolable. Professor Frazer's explanation is that it is 
because contact with the object is supposed to bring to the 
one guilty or unfortunate enough to touch it some quality 
or characteristic it possesses, and this, while normal to the 

" R. R. Marett, Anthropology, p. 2\yi. (Heath, New York.) 



68 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

oris:inal possessor, would be a baneful Influence to the one 
who secured it by his deliberate or inadvertent contact. 
But Professor Marett would go a step further and account 
for the fear of contact by mana. The object or the person 
which is tabu is believed to possess an especially large 
amount of that mysterious power which if released by con- 
tact will cause calamity, pain, ill luck, and even death. The 
main difficulty with the whole theory as held by savage 
people is that it is devoid of reasonable regulation. The 
practice runs wild and no discrimination is made between a 
prohibition which is wise and preventive of harm and a 
prohibition which can only hamper normal life and activity. 
At even a much later day it was exceedingly difficult for the 
Jewish people to see the difference between a ceremonial 
prohibition and one which involved moral and social issues. 
Jesus' relation to the Jewish Sabbath is a case in point. 
He broke through the merely ceremonial tabus which made 
the day a burden and, by declaring that the Sabbath was 
made for man, turned the attention to the underlying social 
and helpful purposes to which the day should be dedicated. 
Let us note, however, that the idea of the sacred and the 
holy, things which should not be profaned, existed in the 
earhest forms of religion. It is an idea which only needed 
elevation and reasonable direction to be fitted to function 
in the highest forms of religion. We shall never reach the 
point where recognition of what is holy, in human hfe and 
relationship with God, must not be counted upon to protect 
life from the irreverence which would ruin all possibility 
of development. 

Animistic Worship 

Up to the present time we have been dealing largely with 
belief, what the savage thinks about the world in which he 
lives, the spirits which are everywhere, and about himself 
and his fellows. He has his theories, and they effectively 
control his life and its relationships. But he acts as well as 



ANIMISTIC RELIGION 69 

thinks; he doubtless acts before he thinks; to him an act 
is more important than the thought he has about it. Stu- 
dents of the early forms of religion are indebted to Profes- 
sor W. Robertson Smith for pointing out that ritual pre- 
cedes belief, that the reaction of a savage to his environ- 
ment is first of all emotional, an act, a dance, a ceremonial, 
and only latterly an intellectual thing, a belief or a concep- 
tion. It is far more a matter of his feet and hands than of 
his head. So in discussing the worship of the animistic 
peoples we are entering into the very citadel of their reli- 
gious life, into that which to them is religion itself. 

The motive which actuates his worship — is it fear or 
trust ? Does he have confidence in the spirits with which he 
deals or is he afraid of them that they may do him injury 
unless he does something to propitiate them or ward them 
off? We have already seen that the savage knows of benefi- 
cent spirits who bring him the good things he has, but this 
is a very little part of the story. His mind is occupied 
rather with the thousand evil-minded spirits, the imps and 
demons, who would crush him if they could, and are con- 
stantly seeking opportunity to do so. Many witnesses are 
forthcoming to tell of their experience among savage 
peoples, an experience of agony as they have witnessed the 
dread and terror which fill the savage mind. We choose 
but one of these testimonies, that of J. H. Weeks, who spent 
fifteen years among the Boloki of the Upper Congo. He 
tells us: "Their system of belief has its basis in their fear 
of those numerous invisible spirits — invisible to the ordi- 
nary man, but not to the medicine man — which are con- 
stantly trying to compass their sickness, misfortune, and 
death; and the Boloki's sole object — and the same may be 
written of his near and distant neighbors on the Congo — 
is to cajole or appease, to cheat or conquer, and even destroy 
the troublesome spirits, hence their witch-doctors with their 
fetishes, their rites and ceremonies. If there were no 
spirits to be circumvented, there would be no need of 



70 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

medicine men as middlemen, and no need of fetishes as 
mediums for getting into touch with the spirits."" 

It is no beautiful picture which confronts us when we 
penetrate into the inner life of the savage peoples of the 
world, and only distance makes possible a certain enchant- 
ment as the "simple, rustic life" of a primitive tribe is de- 
scribed by the traveler, who fails to penetrate the dark 
recesses "at the back of the black man's mind." One fur- 
ther quotation is needed to complete the picture and reheve 
the strain. After a description of the dread which is pres- 
ent in the minds of the Bantu peoples of Africa, we read 
again, "However, it would be no doubt a great mistake to 
imagine that the minds of the Bantu, or, indeed, of any sav- 
ages, are perpetually occupied by a dread of evil spirits; the 
savage and, indeed, the civilized man is incapable, at least 
in his normal state, of such excessive preoccupation with a 
single idea, which, if prolonged, could hardly fail to end 
in insanity."" We undoubtedly have in this attitude of fear 
on the part of the savage the best explanation of his back- 
ward state. Nobility of character and the development of 
society never spring from the disorganizing motive of fear. 
To develop the possibilities in man and to organize his Hfe 
in ever higher forms of social intercourse require a basis of 
trust and confidence — trust and confidence in one another, 
and even more fundamentally in the spirits and powers on 
whom they are dependent. And these things cannot be 
found and do not exist in savage life and religion. 

Sacrifice must be taken up first in the presentation of 
worship ; indeed, in early religion the two are almost synon- 
ymous. To come directly to the objects which are offered 
in sacrifice, the general statement may be made that they 
are the things which man himself needs or desires for his 
nourishment and comfort and pleasure. Here is analogy at 
work again; the spirits are sufficiently like men to need 

" Among Congo Cannibals, p. 259. 
"Folk-lore, xx, 1909, p. 51 f. 



I 



ANIMISTIC RELIGION 71 

what they need and like what they Hke. So food and drink, 
clothing and utensils constitute the body of sacrifice the 
world over. Analogy has even gone further and demanded 
the sacrifice of human beings — slaves, servants, children, 
wives — to satisfy the beings who surely must need these 
things as men do. A certain value must always attach to the 
object offered, or it is not efficacious. Life is the most pre- 
cious thing in the world, and this recognition has led to the 
taking of life in sacrifice and offering it to the higher pow- 
ers. This led very early and widely to the offering of human 
life, and the custom continued until the sensibilities of men 
turned against such inhumanity with horror and animals 
were substituted for human beings. But even to-day the 
practice prevails in places and is with difficulty rooted up 
by civilized governments which have made themselves re- 
sponsible for the conduct of savage tribes. The story of 
the sacrifice of Isaac in the book of Genesis is the story of 
the transition from human sacrifice to the acceptance of an 
animal substitute. The letting of blood has been a feature 
of sacrifice from the earliest day, the idea being everywhere 
present that in some very real fashion ''the life is the blood," 
and so to sacrifice by the effusion of blood is to be sure that 
the life itself has been offered to the power before whom 
one stands. 

"The head of the animal or man may be cut off (and cus- 
tom often requires that a single blow shall suffice), its spine 
broken or its heart torn out; it may be stoned, beaten to 
death or shot, torn in pieces, drowned or buried, burned 
to death or hung, thrown down a precipice, strangled or 
squeezed to death. The sacrifices may aim at causing a speedy 
death or a slow one. The corpse may be burned, in part or 
as a whole ; portions may be assigned to the priest, the sacri- 
ficer, and the gods ; the skull, bones, etc., may receive special 
treatment; the fat or blood may be set aside, and they or 
the ashes may be singled out as the share of the god, to be 
offered upon the altar; the skin of the victim may be em- 



72 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

ployed as a covering for idol or material representative of 
the god, either permanently or till the next animal sacri- 
fice. The blood of the victim may be drunk by the priest 
as a means of inducing inspiration, its entrails may be em- 
ployed in divination, its flesh consumed in a common meal, 
exposed to the birds and beasts of prey, or buried in the 
earth,'"" so varied are the usages in the practice of sacrifice 
in different parts of the world. 

To placate an angry god is the idea lying back of sacrifice 
everywhere. It is not the only purpose, but it prevails as 
widely as sacrifice is found. He may be rendered propitious 
by gifts or bought off by the bounty which is spread before 
him. In the dire straits to which he is often reduced the 
savage is willing to do anything to secure immunity from 
disease or security from any one of a hundred dangers 
which surround him. But he has another purpose in many 
of his sacrifices. He is conscious, or the group is, that the 
god is displeased because of something wrong that has been 
done. A tabu has been broken or a custom has been in- 
fringed, and the god must be propitiated, he must be ren- 
dered friendly again. Then a sacrifice is offered by way of 
atoning for the wrong done. An animal may be killed or 
burned, the sins may be laid on a scape-goat and the animal 
sent out in the wilderness bearing away the guilt of the 
people. The guilt is acknowledged and the right of the god 
to punish is recognized. The god is willing to accept a sub- 
stitute in an animal slain, and thus the idea of the vicarious- 
ness of suffering and punishment is established. These con- 
ceptions come to their fruition only in the higher religions 
where the sense of sin has become clear and poignant, but 
the ideas themselves root back into the earlier forms when 
men began to feel a sense of responsibility to higher powers. 

The attempt to discover the earliest form of sacrifice, 
that out of which all the other forms have developed, has 



" N. W. Thomas, article. "Sacrifice," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 
ith edition. 



ANIMISTIC RELIGION 73 

proved futile. Without doubt sacrifice does not hark back 
to any one single form. The attempt has been made to 
carry back every form to the eating of the totem animal 
by the totem clan, where it is claimed that the animal is 
thought of as being eaten in common by the god and his 
people, thus estabHshing a more enduring friendship between 
them. But this sacrifice may not be real communion at all ; 
it may be a meal which is significant because by eating of a 
sacred animal some of the desired qualities may pass into 
the life of the eater. Sacrifices are made to ancestors to 
provide them with needed articles or the consolations of hu- 
man companionship in the world to which they have gone. 
Human sacrifice may have originated in this way. Some of 
the bloody holocausts which have been offered in Africa 
within recent years have been immediately after the death 
of a great chief. 

Closely connected with sacrifice is prayer. It may be that 
the earliest prayer was a call to the spirits to come and par- 
take of the sacrifice which had been offered. It is always 
the expression of a desire, the making of a request that this 
or that may or may not take place. It is the instinctive 
utterance of the human heart when in distress or threatened 
by some danger. It is usually offered in time of need when 
supernatural help must be called in to save a situation other- 
wise hopeless. The prayer of savages never rises higher 
than purely material needs and desires. This being true, 
savage prayer never reaches up to the level where prayer 
is looked upon as communion with God, and where this is 
considered the very essence of the exercise. The chief 
danger in prayer is that it may revert to a spell or incanta- 
tion, the value of which lies in the mere repetition of the 
words. Whether we understand their meaning or not it 
makes no difference, there is potency in the words and they 
will bring the desired end by being uttered. So far is this 
carried that ''spell-narratives" about the gods are told, the 
belief being that even talking about a thing makes it hap- 



74 THE RELIGIOXS OF MAXKIND 

pen. Should the worshiper know the name of his god, he 
has in his possession a wonderful lever to bring what he 
desires to pass. The name is looked upon as a part of the 
personality, and to be able to use the name to reen force a 
request is to be far more sure of receiving the boon than 
would otherwise be true. Widely extended is the belief in 
the necessity of cleanness in approaching the spirits to be 
propitiated. The purifications at times are really cleansing 
so far as the body is concerned. The hands, the feet, the 
mouth, and frequently the whole body must be pure to come 
acceptably into the presence of the higher powers. But as 
in so much in savage life reason does not give direction 
where it is seriously needed. Uncleanness is connected 
closely with the idea of tabu and is incurred by con- 
tact with ceremonially dangerous and sacred things, like 
corpses, newly born infants, blood, and a hundred other 
things. To us the ''purification" seems in many cases as 
defiling as the uncleanness itself. The chemical purity of 
the cleansing agent has nothing to do with it. The most 
disgusting things are considered highly purifying and are 
believed in implicitly, even in religions advanced far beyond 
that of the people we are studying. Only at a comparatively 
late stage did the idea of moral defilement arise and seem 
more terrible than ceremonial uncleanness. Then the out- 
ward act of purification became a symbol of the inner cleans- 
ing from the defilement of sin. 

Early in the history of religion a class of men arose 
known as priests, medicine-men, witch-doctors, shamans, 
exorcists, and mediums. They are the members of the 
community through whom communication is had with the 
supernatural. The essential characteristic of the priest is 
that he mediate between men and the powers on whom they 
are dependent. In ancestor worship alone, where the father 
and the clan heads are the leaders in the worship, is the 
priest not found in early religion. Not anyone could be a 
priest. He must demonstrate his ability to hold intercourse 



ANIMISTIC RELIGION ;S 

with the gods. This he does by conduct which is quite 
expHcable to us as intoxication or ecstasy or epileptic seiz- 
ures, but which to the savage clearly indicates that his per- 
sonality is in the possession of some spirit other than his 
own. The ejaculations and groans and incoherent utter- 
ances, which to us are of no significance, to the savage are 
full of meaning, only needing the interpretation of the priest 
himself to be seen in their true light as a divine message. 
The office frequently becomes hereditary in certain families 
and when that point is reached the priesthood is a perma- 
nent institution and tends to secure an ever stronger hold 
upon the people. These experts in ritual become more indis- 
pensable as the ritual is elaborated and access to the gods 
is thought to be possible only through these channels of 
communication. 

Magic and Religion 

Magic is one thing to us and another to the savage. We 
look back upon it after it has shown itself to be what it 
really is, after the distinction between magic and religion 
may be clearly seen. Religion for us expresses itself in 
worship of higher powers. The attitude is one of depend- 
ence, coming into the presence of God in humility to thank 
him for his goodness and to make request for certain good 
things after which we crave. Magic, on the other hand, 
means to us a very different attitude. Instead of seeking 
our desires by humble entreaty the attitude in magic is that 
of self-sufficiency, as though there were another method of 
securing our ends without recourse to petition. We possess 
the good luck taUsman, we know what will charm away the 
sickness, we can by doing this or that, by ''knowing the 
trick," bring good fortune and accomplish our wish. A 
hundred examples could soon be collected from the prac- 
tice of men and women in our own communities by which 
they beHeve certain things can be brought about or pre- 
vented by magic. The attitude is entirely different from 



76 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

that of true religion. In one case we trust God ; in the other 
we trust some contrivance or spell or charm. In one case 
we secure our aims by making a request; in the other we 
secure them by coercion. In one case we seek ; in the other 
we demand. Not that the two attitudes are always kept 
apart. Even among Christians there is the constant danger 
that prayer, to use one illustration, may be looked upon 
as meritorious in itself and as efficacious in its very per- 
formance, as though we might secure the desired object 
because we went through the act of praying. 

But to the savage in the darkness of his mind such a dis- 
tinction as we have just made is utterly out of the question. 
He is in trouble and confusion before the dangers and un- 
certainties of life. At his wits' end, he is willing to do any- 
thing to get relief and secure what he so much desires. 
Animism is the background of all his thinking about the 
universe. Some kind of manu, or spiritual influence, is 
everywhere, and whatever he does or gets must be done 
through spiritual agency. In the use of these spiritual 
agencies he is led into one or the other or both of two 
methods. He is in fear of the spirits who can do him in- 
jury ; he must placate them by offerings and make request 
of them by prayer; and we call this religion. But this is 
not all he can do. He has discovered that by doing certain 
things results follow which are what he wants. He can hit 
two stones together and produce a spark. He believes that 
spiritual influences can be evoked by what he may do, and 
around this belief and the coincidences which he has noted 
he has built up what might almost be called a science of 
cause and effect. Only the absence of any notion of nat- 
ural law prevents us from giving these words their full 
meaning as we use them now. All that is effected is to him 
the result of spiritual forces. This being the case, we can- 
not expect him to see the difference between what he does 
when he sacrifices and prays and what he does when he shouts 
some "Open Sesame" and expects the rock to roll away, 



ANIMISTIC RELIGION 'jy 

for him. He does not think much about it at all ; he finds 
that it works; he knows that the all-pervasive mana is 
accountable for it, and that is enough for him. 

This discovery that by doing one thing another thing 
happens leads him into an elaborate system of acts which 
are based on several simple and to him most obvious con- 
clusions. He believes implicitly that things which were once 
connected and had some relationship with each other con- 
tinue to have the same relationship even though they may be 
separated by a long distance. A coat which was once owned 
by some man still has some connection with him even 
though he has discarded it or given it away to another. 
If, then, you desire to do something to the original owner 
you may find the coat a convenient medium. By tearing or 
burning it a most uncomfortable experience may be caused 
the man to whom it belonged. Especially is this true of the 
hair and nails which are so much closer to him than his coat. 
Great care is exercised in many places among savages to 
bury all these cuttings and parings so that an enemy may 
not do injury by taking advantage of the possession of a 
part of you which still is considered as intimately con- 
nected with your body and its welfare. This has been 
called contagious magic, and finds a thousand applications 
in the world of the animist. 

Then, again, the savage seems unable to get away from 
the feeling that Hke produces like. If this be true, a result 
can be attained by imitating it. A rain-maker in one of the 
islands in Torres Straits painted the front of his body white 
and the back black. The explanation was that "all along 
same as clouds — black behind, white he go first.'"" This 
has been called mimetic or homoeopathic magic. Then, 
too, names and certain words have magical power, and the 
same is true of talismans and amulets, which can bring to 
pass what may be desired or ward off impending danger. 

Professor Frazer claims that magic and religion are like 

" Quoted by A. C. Haddon, Magic and Fetishism, p. 17. 



78 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

oil and water and will not mix. He holds that man started 
with magic and, because this method did not bring him the 
fulfillment of his desires, he was compelled to leave it and 
try religion. One very heavy count against this theory is that 
we find the two methods intermingling in the life of sav- 
ages in all places and at all times. Both seem to have ex- 
isted from the beginning and to have developed side by 
side. The only distinction made by the savage himself is 
that between his use of the spiritual or demonic influences 
for his own private advantage, which may involve injury 
or loss to his neighbor, and that use of these influences 
which is for the public good. It is a very real distinction 
to him, and he condemns and punishes the dealer in the 
nefarious traffic with little mercy. On the basis of this 
distinction, which is the only one the savage is capable of 
making, there are those who would say that fundamentally 
religion and magic are the same, the only diff^erence being 
that religion is social and magic unsocial or anti-social. 
It is not a matter of method or attitude toward the spiritual 
world, but only of purpose. Undoubtedly this difference 
is real and must be taken into consideration when dealing 
with magic and religion among savages, but, when the same 
act may be social under certain conditions and anti-social 
under others,'^ it is quite clear that some other clue is nec- 
essary to an understanding of the essential difference be- 
tween them. This clue we take from the distinction we 
make when from our superior vantage-point we are able to 
see what the savage cannot see, that there is a difference 
in attitude between magic and religion which separates the 
two fundamentally. 

When, in the form of fetishism already mentioned, the 
savage gives himself to coaxing and compelling his fetish 
to do his bidding, the debasing character of his practice is 
evident. Only because he may be able to look on some other 
of his spirits, not as "gods at his disposal," but as powers 

'^ See discussion by Hartland in Ritual and Belief. 



ANIMISTIC RELIGION 79 

to be feared and supplicated, is there any possibility of 
advance into higher forms of religious faith. Unknown 
to him the struggle between magic and religion has begun, 
and only by the gradual ascendency of the true spirit of 
religion has man attained the higher reaches of religious 
experience. And to-day we find ourselves in the same con- 
flict, the difference being that, knowing its danger, we may 
set ourselves consciously and deliberately to trample magic 
underfoot and raise religion to its exclusive place in our 
Hves as we come into the presence of God. 

Suggestions for Further Study 

D. G. Brinton, The Religions of Primitive Peoples (New York, 

1897). 
R. R. Marett, The Threshold of Religion (New York, 1914). 
Edwin Sidney Hartland, Ritual and Belief (New York, 1914). The 

most thorough treatment of Religion and Magic. 
Edward Clodd, Animism (London, 1905). 
Alfred C. Haddon, Magic and Fetishism (London, 1910). 
Crawford Howell Toy, Introduction to the History of Religions 

(Boston, 1913). An encyclopaedic work, to be used for 

reference. 



CHAPTER III 
EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 

The Nile Valley and Its Inhabitants 

All the national religions have their roots in the animis- 
tic cults we have studied in the previous chapter. While 
many tribes scattered over the world have remained in 
the tribal form of organization and the corresponding ani- 
mistic forms of religious life, other peoples have left these 
crude beginnings behind and have become nations and 
started out on the long journey toward an advanced culture 
and civilization. The earliest centers of such development 
of which we have any knowledge are Egypt, Mesopotamia, 
and China. In each case the development started on the 
banks of a river — the Nile, the Euphrates, and the Yellow 
River — and in each case the earliest beginnings are hidden 
from our view, so far back do they lie before history and 
chronology had begun to be put down in permanent records. 
Of these three ancient peoples only China has been able to 
maintain itself distinct and separate from other nations 
through the millenniums. The early civilization and reli- 
gion of the Nile and the Euphrates have long since disap- 
peared, and only the spade of the archaeologist is able to 
recover precious bits of information which would otherwise 
be entirely unknown. The ancient religion of China con- 
tinues to exist, changed to be sure, but of immense influence 
in the China of to-day; but the faiths, long since dead, of 
Egypt and Mesopotamia — why should we spend time in 
attempting to understand them in this fast-moving modern 
world? One might make out a case for the study of these 
religions, as well as those of Greece and Rome, on the 
ground of sheer interest in what xnen have believed and 

80 



EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 8i 

practiced in an age different from our own. But while 
these faiths have forever passed away as formal religions 
the factors which made them live and which gave satisfac- 
tion to the people who worshiped the old divinities cannot be 
quenched. In so far as they possessed the principle of life 
they did not die. Other manifestations of the same life- 
principle begin to appear as religions change, but they 
are the same old elements seeking higher forms. As reli- 
gions they may die, but all the true religion they contained 
keeps on living. We are more interested in religion than 
in religions, so these ancient faiths may still teach us the 
most important lessons concerning what religion is or ought 
to be among men. 

"Egypt is a gift of the Nile," quoted by Herodotus from 
an earlier Greek writer, is the truest thing that could be said 
of this narrow ribbon of a country, which is little more 
than the banks of this wonderful river. There is first the 
river itself, which flows from the strange, unknown lands of 
the far south and, after twisting itself northward through a 
thousand miles and more, spreads out into the famous delta 
and empties into the Mediterranean through a number of 
mouths. The land is low for some distance on either side 
of the stream, and this is the real Egypt. Extending beyond 
this fertile strip is higher ground, which in turn reaches out 
to the high walls of the valley, beyond which stretches 
away on both sides the blazing, howling desert. 

With almost no rain the country must depend on the Nile 
for its productivity. Every year the river rises above its 
banks and overflows the low-lying strip on each side. This 
is the secret of the fertiHty of Egypt. Not only is the 
ground thoroughly soaked but a thin layer of alluvium is 
brought down and deposited over the fields, thus replenish- 
ing the constantly worked soil. But there are many sec- 
tions which are not reached by the inundation, and they 
must be irrigated by artificial means. This means canals 
and embankments and sluice gates and the whole parapher- 



82 THE RELIGION'S OF MANKIND 

nalia of irrigation. The importance of these facts for our 
immediate consideration is that this economic need made 
necessary common labor organized to make the best use of 
the water supply, and with this development a similar 
growth of political organization. This necessity for orga- 
nized toil marks the beginning of culture and civilization. 
He was a savage like those who surrounded him when he 
began, but in a short time the Egyptian begins to take a 
place in advance, and after a time he is living in a different 
world; he has developed a national life and is no longer 
a savage with savage tastes and outlook. 

It must also be noted that the development took place 
during long centuries separated from contact with other 
peoples and cultures. This, of course, is a relative state- 
ment, for there was contact with the Semites to 
the east at several periods during her long history, but 
compared with other peoples Egypt was isolated and alone 
during most of the long period of her independent life. 
This enables us to study the religion of this country as the 
unique product of her genius, untouched by influences which 
might have turned it into very different channels. 

The people of ancient Egypt were in all probability a 
mixture of African tribes, called by many Hamitic, and 
Semites, who at a very early age, long before the opening 
of its recorded history, came over from Arabia, fused with 
the natives, and formed the Egyptian type as we know it 
even in our own time. The Egyptian countryman, the fella- 
hin, who greets you as you set foot in Egypt to-day, is the 
same man who gazes out at you from the oldest monuments 
his land contains. The Semites came in as conquerors, 
who in turn were compelled to adopt the higher civilization 
of the natives, who had already made some advance in sub-' 
duing the land and harnessing the Nile to the uses of agri- 
culture. All we can be relatively sure of is that this people, 
now amalgamated into one, far back between B. C. 50CX) 
and 4000 had settled down on both banks of the river, 



EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 83 

organized in little principalities, which later were given the 
Greek name of ''nomes/' There were more than forty of 
these little states, about equally divided between the Delta 
region, or Lower Egypt, and the long, narrow valley reach- 
ing into the south, called Upper Egypt. Each of these had 
its chief town or city in which dwelt the ruler and in which 
also the chief god of the nome had his seat. Through all 
the changes and vicissitudes of Egyptian history these nomes 
persisted and exerted an influence on the civilization and 
religion of the land. 

The Egyptian has always been intensely religious. This 
is one of the surest indications we meet in a study of the 
earliest monuments erected by this gifted people. It was 
of a unique type, as we shall see, but it was genuine and 
deep. He was conservative beyond most people who have 
ever lived. Somehow he never felt he could lay aside any- 
thing he had ever picked up or discovered. He kept trail- 
ing along after him all the lumber which should have been 
discarded, as though he might suffer if he let go a single 
thing he had ever practiced or believed. Thus at the end we 
may study not only what the Egyptian thought then but all 
he had ever believed in the millenniums of his history — in 
fact, it all continued to be his belief still. Professor George 
Foot Moore sums it all up in a pregnant sentence: "The 
Egyptians of later ages could learn but not forget — the 
most fatal of all disqualifications for progress.'" 

This people were singularly lacking in philosophic power. 
They seemed incapable of abstract thinking — it must all be 
in the realm of the concrete, of visible symbols. The priests 
of Heliopolis and Thebes did work out a theology, but it 
was not in conformity with any well-knit philosophy. The 
Egyptian seemed always to be able to hold the most contra- 
dictory views at the same time with no sense of incongruity. 
What would have been abhorrent to the Greek seemed per- 
fectly natural to the Egyptian. He wanted to see things 

* History of Religions, vol, i, p. 148. (Scribners, New York, 1920.) 



84 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

clearly ; he was not willing to leave much to the imagination. 
His art consisted of clear line-drawings and had not much 
depth or mystic hazy background. His writing was in the 
language of symbols and with difficulty could be made to 
express the abstract conceptions which even he must of 
necessity employ. He was exceedingly practical and bent 
everything to his insatiable desire to bring whatever he dealt 
with within the compass of his alert but somewhat circum- 
scribed mental outlook. His religion was, as a consequence, 
practical and lacking In philosophical and mystical depth. 

According to Manetho, ''an Egyptian priest who wrote an 
historical work in Greek,"* the first king of united Egypt 
was Menes, who reigned some time before B. C. 3000. But 
even before the time of this first king we have reason to 
believe that Egypt was divided Into two kingdoms, those 
of Upper and Lower Egypt, and that eventually Lower, or 
northern Egypt, was conquered by the south. Then came 
Menes from the north and united all Egypt under one sway. 
The dynasty thus introduced was the first of thirty-one 
dynasties, extending from the time of Menes to the loss of 
Independence when Eg}'pt was conquered by Alexander the 
Great In B. C. 332. During this long period Egypt passed 
through all the experiences from the most exalted culture 
and prosperity, when foreign conquest added distant lands 
to her sway, to the humiliation of internal decay and out- 
ward defeat, when her borders were overrun by alien armies 
and her government was In the hands of princes appointed 
from far-away Mesopotamia. We cannot enter further 
into the fascinating details of this history, as important as 
it would be to understand the meaning of much in the reli- 
gion which must otherwise remain obscure. All we may 
do Is to call attention to the fact that the political history 
and the history of the religion experienced their periods of 
development and decay simultaneously, one reacting on the 

' SteindorfT, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 5. (Putnam, 
New York, 1905.) 



EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 85 

other, religion and state being but different phases of a com- 
mon culture from the beginning to the end of the story of 
this people. 

The Egyptian Pantheon 

The nomes or little principalities of Egypt, each with its 
central town and its prince, had each a chief god of its own. 
These gods may all in the beginning have been without 
names. The monuments refer to several local divinities 
merely by the names of the nomes to which they belonged, 
*'he of Edfu" and "the lady of Elkab" being designations 
of the supreme divine beings of those cities. But names 
must very soon have been attached. They were originally 
different, but very early the same name is to be found in 
several places. This arose, it may be, by one name being 
carried by war to another nome, for, while the Egyptians 
were more peace-loving than their contemporaries in Meso- 
potamia, these little principalities were frequently in con- 
flict with each other. Or, perhaps, the god of one nome 
was seen even beyond his own borders to be specially pow- 
erful and willing to bring good to his people, and so his 
name was taken as that which might bring good to another 
district if it should be attached to the previously unnamed 
god there. Another early tendency is also to be noted; 
the gods of some of the nomes who originally had doubt- 
less been merely the protecting divinity of his own people, 
began to take on a deeper and wider significance. Amon, 
the god of Thebes, came to be regarded in a more general 
way as the god of fertility and generation. This would lead 
also to an expansion of the sphere of influence of this god, 
and so it was with others. 

The various heavenly bodies, the River Nile, their kings, 
trees, and even piles of stones were looked upon as divine 
and received worship. But the gods of the Egyptians were 
to a larger extent animals than anything else. This is one 
of the peculiarities of the religion, and struck the people 



86 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

of Greece and Rome as being as strange as it does us. The 
pagan Celsus is quoted by Origen as saying, *Tf a stranger 
reaches Egypt, he is struck by the splendid temples and 
sacred groves that he sees, great and magnificent courts, 
marvelous temples with pleasant walks about them, imposing 
and occult ceremonies ; but when he had entered into the 
innermost sanctuary he finds the god worshiped in these 
buildings to be a cat, or an ape, or a crocodile, or a he goat, 
or a dog.'" When the Romans were masters of the country 
one of the legionaries "who had accidentally killed a cat was 
torn to pieces by the mob. . . . For the majority of the people 
the cat was an incarnate god."* Thout, the god of Her- 
mopolis, was either a baboon or an ibis; the god of the dis- 
trict of the first cataract, whose name was Khnum, was a 
he-goat, and Apis, the god of Memphis, was a bull. There 
was no bird or animal or creeping thing or beetle or fish or 
frog which did not take its place in the pantheon of the 
Egyptians. Animal worship is to be found in many other 
places, but nowhere did it assume such proportions and 
dominate the thinking of the people as in Egypt. 

The problem of the origin of this animal worship is as 
yet unsolved. The temptation is strong to claim that it is 
based on an early totemistic organization, the animals later 
worshiped being the totems of various clans in the far-off 
prehistoric age. The chief difficulty with this theory is 
that not one shred of evidence is forthcoming that the 
Egyptians believed that animals were the ancestors of men 
or even that any intimate relationship existed between them. 
Such a belief may have been held at one time, but it had 
been so completely lost that no vestige of it remained even 
in the most ancient times of which we have any informa- 
tion. It is doubtless better for us to disclaim any certain 
knowledge. What we do know is that there was something 



' See Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, p. i8i. 
* Sayce, The Religion of Ancient Egypt, p. loi. (Clark, Edin- 
burgh, 1913) 



EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 87 

about animals and their actions which made a strong appeal 
to the superstitious fears of the people and led them to treat 
them as divine. 

Very early the gods, many of them, began to be human- 
ized. The worship of an animal as an animal ceased to 
satisfy as culture increased ; a god must be more like a man 
to be worthy of worship. The first step taken was to rep- 
resent the gods with human bodies but with animal heads. 
Khnum is represented as a man with a ram's head, Hekt 
as a woman with the head of a frog, Sekhet, the wife of 
Ptah, is the lioness-headed woman, over whose head is rep- 
resented the solar disk, crowned with the poisonous urseus 
serpent. Finally the gods became complete human beings, 
head and all, but the man or woman god was given some 
symbol to indicate a connection with the animal which it 
originally was. Hathor, for example, is a full-fledged 
woman with a cow's horns on her head. Amon Re i.s a man 
holding in one hand a scepter and in the other the keylike 
symbol of life and having his head crowned in several ways 
in different places, either with the sun's disk and two long 
feathers or with a pair of ram's horns. But even in the 
later day the conservatism of the Egyptian is seen in his 
inability to drop the animal conception. It is after Chris- 
tianity had begun to. do its work in Egypt that the condition 
described by Celsus obtained in all parts of the country. 
He simply could not get away from his old crude conceptions 
despite his advance in culture and refinement. 

At Heliopolis in the days of the Middle Kingdom (from 
about B. C. 2000 to 1790) the priestly thinkers constructed a 
theology in which their god, the sun god Re, was placed in 
a position of supremacy above all the gods of the land. So 
powerful was the influence of this priesthood and so highly 
favored by the rulers that their theology spread far and 
wide until for the first time all Egypt, officially at least, came 
to recognize Re as the first god of the whole country. It 
was a movement toward monotheism, but it did not reach 



88 THE RELIGIONS OE MANKIND 

it ; it was not sufficiently exclusive to bar out the presence 
and influence of other gods who were looked upon as helpers 
of the one supreme god Re. One of the results of the exalta- 
tion of Re was that many other gods were assimilated to 
him, that is, they were mingled or identified with him in 
name and in attribute, and thus a new conception of a god 
came into existence. The other priesthoods did not want 
their gods to be lost, so they joined their names with that of 
Re and declared that Re was their god, too, only it was the 
Re who had been united with the original god of their 
temple. So we find such hyphenates as Re-Horus, Re-Amon, 
and many others. Only a few of the old gods, like Osiris, 
Ptah, and Thoth, were able to preserve their distinct iden- 
tity, so strong was the influence exerted by the priests of 
HeHopolis and their theology. 

Here is the work of priests seeking to register in theology 
what practically had come to be the position of their god in 
the unified empire. But the priests in various cities went 
further than this. They began to construct triads of gods, 
grouping them as father, mother, and son. At Thebes we 
find Amon the father, Mut the mother, and Montu the son ; 
at Memphis it was Ptah, Sekhet, and Imhotep; and again 
at Abydos Osiris, Isis, and Horus. In the stories told of 
these trios the son inherits his father's authority and be- 
comes his mother's husband. The mother does not die, not 
being connected with the sun as her husband and son are. 
Like the sun, which after the day's work sinks to rest be- 
yond the western horizon, all the divine beings connected 
with him have the same kind of mortality and must look 
forward to an eclipse or death at the end of their journey. 

But more artificial combinations were worked out by the 
priests in various temples. They were not satisfied with 
triads but went further and constructed enneads, or groups 
of nine gods. The idea of a group of three was still present, 
but now it was a multiple of three and not the original 
simple triad. At Heliopolis and in a few other places two 



EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 89 

enneads were gathered together, a greater and a lesser. 
These combinations were the work of men who were not 
content to see their pantheon in confusion with no order or 
classification of the deities. They wanted to explain the 
origin and relationship of the gods, and did so by placing 
their great god at the apex of their ennead and the others as 
derived from him in a descending series of ranks. It is 
a clumsy and artificial construction on the part of priests, 
who were not able to drop any gods from their Hst, and who 
tried thus to bring some kind of unity out of the disorder. 
Another development grew out of the subordination of 
many gods to the sun god Re. It was a kind of solar pan- 
theism. The sun, and only the sun, exists and makes up the 
universe. All else is appearance, the manifestation of the 
supreme and all-embracing sun. This, too, was a priestly 
formulation. It represents rather a tendency than a finished 
and widely accepted belief. The people went on in their own 
way worshiping their local gods, animals and trees, and 
other spirits, little influenced by the colleges of priests in the 
great centers of official religion. 

In the New Kingdom the capital was Thebes, and Amon 
was looked upon as the national god of Egypt. But the in- 
fluence of Re had for long been so pronounced that it was 
with the double title Amon-Re that his supremacy was 
acknowledged. Only one or two gods, like Ptah of Mem- 
phis and Re of HeHopolis, could retain a measure of their 
old prestige. Then came Amenophis IV, king of Egypt from 
B. C. 1375 to 1358. Educated with the priests of HeHop- 
olis, this young prince was deeply religious. He came to 
feel that the sun-god possessed the right to universal wor- 
ship, and he sought to convert his conviction into practice. 
He attempted to discredit all the other gods and put the sun- 
god in their place. It was a movement toward monotheism. 
It was the sun, Aton, the solar disk, closely related to Re, 
which was to be the object of devotion. Aton **had not, 
like Re, been fused with terrestrial gods of various beastly 



90 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

shapes nor represented in human form, and by its freedom 
from such associations his name was a fit symbol for god 
in a purer solar monotheism."" Aton was made the one 
national deity ; all were required to serve this one god alone. 
The statues of the other gods were to be destroyed and their 
names forgotten. Anion of Thebes was the special object 
of the rigor of his reforming zeal. The king changed his 
name from Amenophis or Amen-hotep ("Amon is content") 
to Ikhnaton ("Spirit of Aton") and moved his capital away 
from Thebes. But, as usual in Egypt, the king, with sublime 
inconsistency, allowed himself to be raised to the place of a 
god and received divine worship. Throughout his reign the 
reform lasted, but immediately upon his death the reaction 
came. It was tremendous and far-reaching. Thebes and 
its great god Amon won the day completely. Amon was 
raised to the supreme place in the pantheon and was praised 
almost in the same terms used of Aton. Yet the monothe- 
istic feature of the reform was utterly repudiated, and other 
gods were allowed their place in the worship of the temples. 
In the thousand and more years which followed this at- 
tempted reform on the part of Amenophis IV Egyptian reli- 
gion failed to show any signs of originality or significant 
development. The temples became more wealthy and power- 
ful, but the life had departed. It was a state cult and the 
common people found little there for them. The old local 
gods were about all they had to give comfort to the heart 
and confidence in facing the trials of life. The worship of 
animals seemed to eat deeper into the religious life. Not 
only the one animal in the temple was worshiped but the 
whole species was reverenced and held in high honor. It 
would seem that the people were reverting to prehistoric 
conditions and losing a part of what they had gained during 
the long course of their history. The influence of Greece 
was strongly felt under the reign of the successors of Alex- 
ander the Great, the Ptolemys, who ruled from B. C. 

"G. F. Moore, History of Religions, vol. i, p. 182. 



1 



EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 91 

332 to 31. A Greek god, Serapis, was brought in during 
this period. His worship spread rapidly, and, identified with 
the old Egyptian god Osiris, he became the national god. 
But even he could not revive a dying paganism. Accompa- 
nied by his wife, the old Egyptian goddess Isis, this new 
Graeco-Egyptian deity took his journey to make new con- 
quests out across the Mediterranean, and we shall meet 
him again in Rome in the day when that city was reaching 
out after a more satisfying religion. 

The Individual Here and Hereafter 

Two unique features distinguish Egyptian religion from 
all others — the extent to which the worship of animals was 
carried and the view of individual immortality which was so 
dominant in all the thinking of the people. The belief was 
well-nigh universal. Only a few cynical pessimists could 
see Httle hope of a sure hereafter, and ordered their hves 
according to the familiar philosophy, *'Eat, drink, and be 
merry, for to-morrow we die." The form taken by the 
belief was determined partly by conditions in the land where 
they lived. "The dry and microbe-free climate,"^ where 
nothing decays but merely dries up, seemed to suggest the 
possibility of a kind of physical immortality in which the 
body might be rendered everlasting and partake of the im- 
mortality of the more immaterial parts. Egyptian archi- 
tecture is above everything else massive, built to stand the 
ravages of time. The gigantic pyramid tombs of the kings, 
the ponderous sarcophagi found in all the cemeteries, as well 
as the temples themselves, suggest permanence. Built out of 
the hard rock to be found in inexhaustible quantities so near 
at hand, the ancient monuments have come down to us but 
slightly damaged through four of five thousand years. But 
above all else the practice of mummification is evidence of 
the keen interest of the Egyptian in a continued existence. 

"Article, "Death (Egyptian)," in Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Reli- 
gion and Ethics. (Scribners, New York.) 



92 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

The idea was that the body must be preserved as necessary 
to immortaHty. Theories of the Hfe beyond came to be held 
which might be considered inconsistent with the necessity of 
the preservation of the body, but inconsistencies were of 
httle consequence to an Egyptian, and he kept right on mak- 
ing mummies of the bodies of his dead in sublime indiffer- 
ence to any untoward theories which might stand in his way. 
When a man died, professional embalmers would remove 
the entrails and place them in jars, which were buried. This 
would prevent the jackals from devouring them and clear 
the body of the parts which would prevent successful 
preservation. 'The body itself was laid in salt water and 
treated with bitumen ; it was then rolled in bandages and 
cloths, while the abdominal cavity was also plugged up with 
linen rolls and cushions.'" Herodotus tells of three methods 
of treating the body, differing according to cost. The most 
expensive method included the drawing out of the brain by 
an iron hook inserted through the nose, great care in dispos- 
ing of the viscera, and an elaborate and extended treatment 
of the body before the final wrapping was undertaken. The 
cheaper processes were much simpler. In all cases the 
mummy was laid in a coffin of wood or stone. The chests 
were frequently decorated ''with a number of doors intended 
to afford exit and entrance to the dead man. At the head- 
end, where the face lay, it was not uncommon to insert a pair 
of eyes; by the aid of these the deceased was expected to 
look forth from the coffin and behold the rising sun. The 
inner surfaces were at a later time inscribed with texts relat- 
ing to the life after death — chapters from the Pyramid- 
Texts and from the Book of the Dead: in addition there 
were pictorial representations of all possible things which 
the dead man could need in the hereafter.'" And then it 
was laid away for safe keeping, for poor people very simply, 
for the wealthy in elaborate tombs, and for kings in such 



^ SteindorflF, The Religion of the Ancient Egyptians," p. 149. 
' SteindorfF, op. cit., p. i5of. 



EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 93 

buildings as the pyramids, which are one of the wonders of 
the world. The dead needed the care of their living rela- 
tives, so offerings were offered at the tomb. In order to 
secure rest and service in the next world those who had been 
accustomed to servants were provided with Ushebtis, "an- 
swerers," which were little porcelain doll-like images, sup- 
posed to represent servants, which were buried with the 
body. This may be a survival coming down from the time 
when slaves were actually killed to accompany their lord 
to the next world. 

The Egyptians had worked out an elaborate psychology. 
To us it seems fantastic, naive, and very confusing, as it 
attempts to name and give a distinct character to various 
phases of the personal life. Besides his body man had an 
immortal soul which was composite. There was the Ka, 
which is described as a man's double or guardian spirit with 
which he was furnished at birth and which was liberated 
from the body at death. "The Ka, which had been the com- 
panion of the body in life, at death attained to independent 
existence. It was to the Ka that funerary prayers and offer- 
ings were made; to the mummy alone they were useless."^ 
The Ka and the mummy could be reunited, it was believed, 
and the mummy reanimated and a new life lived, but in all 
cases food and drink must be offered at the tomb. Besides 
the Ka there was the Ba, which may best be described as the 
soul of the departed man. It is often pictured as a bird, with 
human head and hands, which at death would fly to the gods. 
But this, too, must be fed and provided with the necessities 
of life, as though the next life were not essentially different 
from this. 

The abode of the dead was variously pictured by the Egyp- 
tians. They were not careful to work out a consistent pic- 
ture, but, true to themselves, were quite willing to accumu- 
late all the ideas which arose and take their pick and make 
combinations as they might choose. There was the early 

•Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 241. 



94 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

belief that the dead continue to live in the tomb a life not 
very different from the life they had lived before. They must 
eat and drink, and this is furnished by the relatives. What 
was not provided in this way was to be secured by magical 
incantations and prayers, these being painted on the coffin 
or mummy chest as an aid to the memory of the dead. He 
may at times leave the tomb and wander around, but in doing 
so it is necessary to be on his guard against ghostly enemies. 
He may interfere in the afifairs of his living relatives, who 
dread his approach and influence. He is not as happy as 
they and is looked upon as restless and anxious, able by the 
aid of magic to assume different shapes and thus be a source 
of terror. Then, again, there is a belief that men — at first 
it was only kings, but later extended to all — might live a life 
of bliss among the gods in heaven, accompanying them on 
their journeys and enjoying their fellowship. To accom- 
plish this a ladder was believed to exist in the west, and up 
this ladder the dead might climb if peradventure they knew 
the necessary magical formulae. But even this abode was 
not entirely unlike the world in which they had previously 
lived. 

Still another conception places the dead in the lower 
world. Beneath the earth there is another called Twet, 
through which runs a river like the Nile. Here in long pas- 
sages and in deep caverns the dead dwell. By night they 
have the light of the sun, for through the twelve sections 
into which this subterranean river-course is divided the sun 
makes his progress, ready to appear at sunrise the next 
morning in the eastern sky of the real Egypt overhead. The 
gates separating the twelve sections are guarded by ser- 
pents and demons, and the sun-god in his magnificent barge 
must know their names to secure passage. It was believed 
at a later time that others might share with the king this 
nightly voyage of the sun, that is, if they were acquainted 
with the appropriate incantations and magical formulae. 

We come lastly to the most important of these conceptions, 



EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 95 

that connected with Osiris. And here it becomes necessary 
to refer to the myth, told in many forms, about Osiris and 
his relation with the dead. Osiris was one of the ancient 
divinities of Egypt. He was murdered by Set, who dismem- 
bered his body and scattered it over the Delta. The mourn- 
ing wife, Isis, wanders over the land seeking the body of 
her husband, while Horus, their son, vows vengeance. In the 
end Osiris is restored to Ufe and becomes the "King of the 
Western Folk," presiding over the realm of the dead. They 
did not know exactly where this realm was, but it became 
the most exalted of their conceptions of the hereafter. This 
god had died and was alive again ; here lay the significance 
of the myth and the belief connected with it. Like him men, 
who knew that death was sure and could not be evaded, 
might hope to rise again to a new life. The belief expanded 
and deepened until the idea of the life beyond was that men 
might become like Osiris; even more than this, that they 
might become Osiris himself, losing in a real sense their own 
personal identity. Dead men were considered as identified 
with him until they were "Osiris so-and-so." This has been 
given as a reason why the Egyptians never became ancestor- 
worshipers. The dead relative ceased to be bound to them 
now that he had become Osiris. No motive remained to 
offer worship to him as a separate being, and this despite the 
conditions in Egyptian family life which would otherwise 
almost surely have led to that reverence and worship which 
grew up among so many peoples. 

As Osiris in the myth had been declared "just" by the 
judges before whom he was tried, so every man before 
entering his realm must come before a similar court. The 
judge is Osiris himself, and at his side are forty-two terrible 
creatures before whom confession must be made. The con- 
fession is for the most part a statement of the sins one 
has not committed, though some positive good things are 
mentioned. "I have not done what the gods abominate." 
"I have not allowed anyone to be hungry." "I have done no 



96 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

murder." "I oppressed no man in possession of his prop- 
erty." So run the items of this confession. But this per- 
sonal confession is not sufficient ; his heart must be "weighed 
on a great balance against the symbol of justice." The heart 
of the man found wanting is devoured by a hippopotamus 
who stands close by and ready. This is about all we know 
of the fate of the wicked. The good are conducted into the 
presence of the king and become residents of the realm. 
Thus, particularly in the later day, the moral sanction be- 
comes an important feature in the thought of the hereafter, 
though it must be said that the unfortunate prevalence of 
magic in all that was connected with death and the condition 
of the dead was so powerful that the conception of the 
future was only partially moralized. And all the while the 
mass of the people were continuing their local worships, but 
slightly touched by the higher religion of the priests and 
thinkers. When Christianity came the old religion died, 
unable to hold its own against a faith so much fuller and 
richer than anything it had to hold out to the people. 

The Gods of Babylonia and Assyria ^H 

Three thousand years before Christ a civilization had been 
developed in the lower Euphrates Valley. Like that of 
Egypt it was a river civilization. In each case the control of 
the water supply had made necessary concerted action and 
political organization. Economic necessity was again respon- 
sible for the formation of a number of small city states, each 
with its prince or king and its chief god. In these respects 
the civilization in Babylonia was like that of Egy^pt, but 
there was a wide divergence whose cause is at once evident 
by a glance at the map. Egypt was isolated and developed 
her culture far distant from foreign influence. Babylonia, 
on the other hand, was open on all sides to the incursion of 
ideas as well as of armies. They might come from the 
mountains of Elam on the east, the desert on the south and 
west, and down the long Mesopotamian valley which reached. 



EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 97 

off toward the northwest. In fact, her history was given 
direction many times by forces which found their way to 
Babylonia from each of these sources. 

The civilization in this valley traveled northward from 
the region near the head of the Persian Gulf. There at a 
very early date a people were to be found called Sumerians. 
We do not know who they were, though it is quite sure they 
were different from the Semites with whom they amalga- 
mated at a later time. It is quite likely that they came from 
the mountains which bounded the plain on the east. At any 
rate it was they who founded cities and began to build up a 
civilization near the mouth of the Euphrates and the Tigris. 
Ur, Eridu, Uruk, Larsa, and Nippur are the names of a 
number of these cities. The city with the surrounding ter- 
ritory made up the state. To the north were the Akkadians, 
Semites related to the desert Arabs, and the Canaanites and 
Amorites over on the Mediterranean coast. Wars between 
these city states were very frequent and deeply influenced 
the religion as well as other features of the life. It is to be 
carefully noted that the various political transformations 
which the land experienced made profound changes in the 
relationships of the gods of the cities involved. After many 
vicissitudes the whole of the land was finally united under 
the mighty King Hammurabi, of the city of Babylon (B. C. 
1958-1916). After his time no distinction can be made 
between the Sumerian and the Akkadian elements of the 
population ; they are now one people with a single language 
and civilization. It was Hammurabi who gave his people 
a famous code of laws, which clearly shows him to have 
been a wise and righteous ruler. For a thousand years after 
his time Babylon dominated the situation in the world of the 
two rivers, and even far beyond. 

But another power was rising in the north. The city of 
Asshur on the banks of the Tigris, far away from the allu- 
vial lowlands of Babylonia, had begun to rival the power 
of her southern neighbor. Finally Babylon is outclassed and 



98 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

the Assyrian empire is the dominant force in western Asia 
from about B. C. 750 to 606. Babylon was shown no mercy 
and the terror of the Assyrian name was carried as far as 
Egypt. The city of Samaria fell and the northern kingdom 
of Israel was carried away captive by this relentless power. 
The chief glory of the empire was the reign of Assurbanipal, 
who made Nineveh great and left behind him a magnificent 
library of baked clay tablets in the cuneiform script which 
in recent years has so enriched our knowledge of the ancient 
Orient. But Nineveh and the Assyrian empire were in turn 
crushed in the year B. C. 606, never again to rise, and their 
place was taken by the rising power of the new Babylonia, 
or Chaldea. From that time until Babylon itself fell into 
the hands of the Medes and Persians under Cyrus, in B. C. 
539, the Chaldean empire told its short tale. One great 
ruler, however, made the era noteworthy. Nebuchadrezzar 
made Babylon the greatest city the world had ever seen, but 
his work was of little avail so far as permanence was con- 
cerned. The empire was weak to its very center and fell a 
ready prey into the hands of the hardy mountaineers from 
the northeast. 

The religion of the Euphrates Valley had long since 
passed out of the animistic stage when the little city states 
appear upon the scene. Yet there is plenty of evidence that 
everything is built upon an animistic foundation. The 
people continued to believe in the Zi, or spirits, in whom 
they had believed in the days before any advance had been 
made in civilization. As the states were in process of for- 
mation certain of the spirits of their former belief grew in 
importance and became distinct gods with personality and 
attributes. This process was hastened by the poHtical re- 
lationships which became more complex as time passed. 
The god of one city came to exercise influence as far as his 
city was able to carry its conquests. But even at the end 
of the process, when the gods had become far more than 
nature powers, evidences could be found which pointed back 



EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 99 

to their more humble origin. According to Professor Jas- 
trow, the gods were personifications of the sun and the 
moon, the power manifesting itself in vegetation, and that 
of the waters and the storm. Larsa and Sippar had Sha- 
mash, the sun-god, Ur and Harran worshiped Sin, the moon- 
god, Uruk had Ishtar, the mother-goddess, while Eridu had 
Ea, the water-deity, as its patron, and Enlil, of Nippur, was 
the **lord of the storm." Professor Robert W. Rogers has 
listed over sixty gods and goddesses gathered together on 
one tablet, though many of these are duplications. "Nearly 
every place in early times would have a sun-god or a moon- 
god or both, and in the political development of the country 
the moon-god of the conquering city displaced or absorbed 
the moon-god of the conquered. When we have eliminated 
these gods, who have practically disappeared, there remains 
a comparatively small number of gods who outrank all the 
others.'"" 

In an early day the priests in the greater temples began 
to form triads. The earliest of these was that of Anu, 
Enlil, and Ea. Anu was the patron divinity of Uruk and 
was associated with the overarching heavens, Enlil with 
the earth and the atmosphere immediately above it, and Ea 
with the waters, those on the earth and those below. Thus 
this triad is inclusive of the universe as conceived by the 
thinkers of the time. A second series of three consists of 
Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar, gods of Babylonia, who did not 
differ essentially from the Sumerian gods of the first triad 
mentioned. In this second triad the place of Ishtar was 
frequently taken by Adad, an Amorite god brought in dur- 
ing the course of their relationship with outlying peoples. 
Under Hammurabi Babylon became the capital of the em- 
pire and Marduk, the patron divinity of the city, the god 
par excellence of the empire. But even this position could 
only be maintained by a process which transferred to him 

'"The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 79. (Eaton & Mains, 
New York, 1908.) 



100 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

the power and attributes of Enlil, of Nippur, and Ea, of 
Eridu. Particularly was this true of Enlil, doubtless because 
he was looked upon as the venerable patron of the oldest 
seat of civilization and hence worthy of respect and honor, 
even when another city was now the seat of far wider 
authority and influence. 

Only one other god could ever vie with Marduk in power, 
and that was Ashur. He was the god of the Assyrian em- 
pire and, as the recognized head of the pantheon, marched 
at the head of the armies as they traveled far from the cap- 
ital carrying destruction and terror all over western Asia 
and even as far as Eg}'pt. He differed from all the other 
gods mentioned in that his worship was imageless and he 
was represented as the disk of the sun' from which rays or 
wings proceed out in all directions. He was of a more 
spiritual type than the other gods, but this does not seem to 
have prevented him from being associated with all the cruelty 
and bloodshed which accompanied the destructive march of 
the armies of Assyria as they ruthlessly destroyed one city 
after another. 

The gods were given consorts or wives, but all we may 
know of many of them is that they had a name. For the 
most part they were of little or no significance. But one 
among them stands out as a power of the first magnitude. It 
is Ishtar, the goddess of generation and fertility, the goddess 
of love and sexual relationships. Starting no doubt in the 
perfectly justifiable veneration of fertility in field and ani- 
mal and man, and being looked upon as presiding over the 
increase upon which all life depends, this goddess became 
the patroness of practices connected with her worship which 
could only be debasing and demoralizing. It is a dark blot 
on a religion which at best could never rise out of a not 
very lofty polytheism and a worship which sadly needed the 
touch of what was pure and ennobling. 

An extensive mythology has come down to us from Baby- 
lonia. The conflict of Bel or Marduk with the monster 



EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA loi 

Tiamat tells the story of creation in such manner that Mar- 
duk is honored and his city, Babylon, is placed before all 
others, so that it has been called "a great political treatise." 
But it was religious as well and exercised an influence upon 
the biblical account of the creation which is undeniable. 
In the Bible, however, the gross polytheism has been laid 
aside and the wonderful prose-poem is made to give honor 
to the one God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. There 
is also the epic of Gilgamesh, the great hero with many ex- 
ploits to his name, to whom is told the deluge story with 
features so nearly akin to the story in Genesis that it is im- 
possible not to see a close connection, but here also the Baby- 
lonian version revels in gods and their relations with men, 
thus representing a level far below that occupied by the par- 
allel narrative in Genesis. All this, and much besides, has 
come down to us from the hbrary of Assurbanipal the As- 
syrian, causing us to be thankful beyond measure that in so 
early a day he should have conceived the idea and actually 
carried it into effect of preserving in permanent form the 
best treasures of a civilization long since dead and otherwise 
largely unknown. 

Man's Approach to the Divine Powers 

In Egypt the worship of animals and the views held con- 
cerning immortality were noted as peculiar. Neither of 
these had any place to speak of in Babylonia and Assyria. 
Here the approach to the gods by divination and astrology 
stands out so prominently that it cannot be avoided in any 
account, however brief, of the religion. Divination was 
practiced to learn or ''divine" the will of the gods sufficiently 
in advance to be able to prepare for what was coming; in 
no sense was it to turn the gods from their purpose. Many 
methods of divination were known. One of them was to 
drop oil into a basin of water and determine from the man- 
ner in which the oil scattered what the future might be. 
But of all the methods the favorite was that by an examina- 



I02 THE REIJGIONS OF MANKIND 

tion of a sheep's liver, called hepatoscopy. The theory on 
which it was based was that the gods identified themselves 
with the animal which was about to be sacrificed. By 
observing the part of the animal which was considered the 
seat of Hfe the will of the god himself could be ascertained. 
Now, among the Babylonians the liver was believed to be 
the seat of life, probably because so large an amount of 
blood was to be found in that organ. The function of the 
heart was not clearly recognized. At a later day, as among 
the Romans, when the heart had taken the place of the liver 
as the seat of life, the heart together with the liver was 
examined in the practice of divination. It was the liver of 
the sheep, which has a very diversified surface. This of- 
fered scope for an almost infinite number of combinations 
of signs, all of which were worked out into an elaborate 
system. In this way a pseudo-science, much like our mod- 
ern palmistry and phrenology, was constructed in great 
detail and with much precision. 

Another form of divination was by the observation of the 
heavenly bodies, or astrology. A coordination was supposed 
to exist between the happenings on earth and the movements 
of the stars and planets and the sun and moon. The basis 
on which such a theory could rest was the belief that the 
gods and the heavenly bodies were one and the same, so 
that if the heavens might be correctly read the will of the 
gods was thereby determined. The first place in astral lore 
was taken by Sin, the moon-god, the "lord of wisdom," 
that is, the wisdom to be ascertained by the scrutiny of the 
sky. Astrology in Babylonia did not trouble itself with the 
petty aflfairs of the individual, but only with important mat- 
ters of state, and here we must note that the concept of the 
state stood for the solidarity of people, king and god. So, 
while the common people had some impersonal share in the 
transactions of the state with the great gods, they had no 
alternative in their own aflfairs than to go to the spirits and 
demons which they believed surrounded them and deal with 



EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 103 

them directly or through sorcerers and witches. The people 
as well as the priests became adepts in interpreting dreams, 
omens, portents, monstrosities, and prodigies. In the words 
of Professor Morris Jastrow, "The significance attached 
to omens was the most conspicuous outward manifestation 
of the religious spirit of the people taken as a whole."" 

But there was more to their religion than that. The elab- 
orate ceremonials in the temples, while shot through with 
the vitiating influences of magic, contained elements of reli- 
gious aspiration and fervor. The Incantation Rituals were 
in the hands of a special class of priests who had worked 
out a gorgeous ceremonial calculated to impress the wor- 
shipers deeply. Unfortunately, however, the gist of the 
whole exercise was to avert the anger of the deities, which 
might only be done by going through a series of incanta- 
tions. The magical has penetrated the religion so deeply that 
it seems exceedingly difficult to escape it. The fear of the 
gods makes almost impossible an approach based on trust 
and confidence in the good will of the divine beings. A 
higher stage is reached in the Penitential Psalms. The 
worshiper feels and confesses that he has done wrong. He 
appeals to this god and to that for forgiveness and cleansing. 
The sins confessed run all the way from moral evil to merely 
ceremonial offenses, discrimination between the two not be- 
ing carefully made. Even at this stage, the highest reached 
by the Babylonians, there is much to be desired. The "ex- 
ceeding sinfulness of sin" does not become apparent. Con- 
fession and forgiveness are looked upon more as things to 
be done in order not to suffer the evil that might otherwise 
come than as the heartfelt expression of a heart filled with 
its own unworthiness and desiring to get back into the love 
and confidence of a compassionate Saviour-God. 

So widely have the rewards and penalties of another life 
been looked upon as furnishing the only sufficient sanction 

" Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 266. (Lippincott, Phil- 
adelphia, 1915.) 



104 THE RELIGIONS OE MANKIND 



for a moral life that many are led to wonder at the high 
ethical standards of the Code of Hammurabi, when seen in 
the light of the cheerless prospect of another world which 
was as much as the Babylonians ever achieved. The lot of 
the dead is not to be envied. There is nothing to do and 
no pleasures to enjoy in the dusty, cold, and dark prison 
where the dead, huddled together indiscriminately, live 
out their miserable existence. There is no chance of a 
return to the clear upper air, except it may be for a short 
time. There is no retribution for the wicked, no reward 
for the good, and no hope of anything better. The only 
thing to make their condition worse would be for the corpse 
to remain unburied or be mutilated. Then even a worse 
fate is his, to roam over the world and feed upon offal in 
company with other miserable ghosts. And yet, like the 
Hebrews who held a similar belief relative to the future 
life, these people developed an ethical system which does 
them high honor. But even here they were surpassd by 
the ideals of Zoroastrianism which were brought into the 
country with the coming of Cyrus. The old religion ceased 
to be as an organized faith when the Assyrian and Baby- 
lonian empires passed from the scene, but their influence 
did not perish. Babylonian astrology and divination and 
other features of their occult lore traveled westward and 
exerted a potent influence in the later days of the paganism 
of Greece and Rome, and even to-day the g}'psy astrologer 
and fortune-teller remind us of the days when these and 
other forms of hocus-pocus were in their glory in the 
Euphrates Valley. 

Suggestions for Further Study 

Egypt: 
J. H. Breasted, Ancicut Times (New York, 1916), Chaps. I-III. 
J. H. Breasted, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient 

Egypt (New York, 1912). 
Georg Steindorff, The Religion of the Ancient Egyptians (New 

York, 1905). 



1 



EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 105 

George Foot Moore, History of Religions (New York, 1913), Vol. I, 

Chaps. VIII, IX. 

Babylonia and Assyria: 
J. H. Breasted, Ancient Times, Chaps. IV, V. 
Robert William Rogers, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria 

(New York, 1908). 
Morris Jastrow, Jr., Aspects of Religious Belief in Babylonia and 

Assyria (New York, 1911). 
George Foot Moore, History of Religions, Vol. I, Chap. X. 



CHAPTER IV 
GREECE AND ROME 

Religion Before Homer 

Long before the arrival of the Greeks a civilization had 
flourished in the lands which they afterward occupied. 
Until recent years little or nothing was known of this civili- 
zation, which had its center in the island of Crete and sent 
out its influences to the adjacent shores of the mainland and 
islands of the Mediterranean. The spade of the archaeolo- 
gist has in the last generation unearthed remains which 
prove that this sea-faring people had developed a remark- 
able culture. The Minoan civilization, as it is called, was 
divided into three periods, the first of which reaches back 
as far as the pyramid age in Egypt, or about B. C. 2500, 
while the last may be dated between B. C. 1600 and 1200. 
The immediate interest we have in this development is that 
when the Greek immigrants made their way down from the 
north they came in contact with a far higher civilization 
than their own. What we know as Greek civilization is 
really the fusion of two cultures, a fusion which took place 
at so distant a date and so long before these people kept rec- 
ords that its actuality has only been fully established in recent 
years. Excavations at Mycenae and other localities in Greece 
have revealed the existence of this early so-called Mycenaean 
civilization and have opened up a new world for scholarly 
investigation. This period in early Greek history synchro- 
nizes with the last of the Minoan, that is, about B. C. 1600 
to 1200. 

The Greeks, then, came from the north and settled and 
conquered and assimilated with the population already in 

106 



GREECE AND ROME 107 

the land. We do not know much about them in that early 
period. Without doubt they were a branch of the widely 
extended Indo-European race, which we shall meet again 
in Persia and India as well as in Europe. The Romans were 
another branch of the same racial stock. But in each case 
the Indo-European has come in contact with some aborig- 
inal race whom it has conquered and with whom it has 
blended. And while there is some resemblance between the 
different members of this scattered family, each has devel- 
oped marked individual traits. The Greek is quite distinct 
from the Roman, and each has had its unique contribution 
to make to the subsequent history of Western civilization. 
Seen in this light, Greece and Rome still live, and the "glory 
that was Greece" and the "grandeur that was Rome" are 
still shedding their luster on the world of the twentieth 
century. 

We know little about the religion of the Greeks of the 
early age. What can now be asserted is not known by direct 
evidence so much as by inference. Hints of all kinds are 
given which seem to point back to practices and beliefs of 
an age long since past. This is not very satisfactory, but 
it is the best we can do at the present time. Putting these 
various hints together and interpreting them on the basis of 
analogous situations in the development in other countries, 
tentative conclusions more or less convincing may be formed. 
It is important to do this, because any light which may be 
shed on the beginnings of the religion of so remarkable a 
people as the Greeks is welcomed as an aid to understand 
the meaning of their genius and development. 

It may be inferred that the early Greek was an animist 
and thus in the same line of development with all other 
peoples whose origins are known. Evidences are not lack- 
ing that their deities were nature gods, and that they rev- 
erenced and even worshiped their ancestors. It is probable 
that at an early time the gods were sufficiently differentiated 
to be considered in charge of this or that interest. They 



io8 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

had in some sense become "departmental" gods, specially 
connected with the great functions of nature and human 
life. The reason why so much indefiniteness should exist 
at this point is that the Greek mind so soon conceived of 
its gods as like men and separated them from the objects in 
nature with which they were connected that the relation 
was very early all but lost and can now scarcely be discov- 
ered. They were complete personalities like ourselves 
and not at all suggestive of the natural objects which had 
first appealed to the early Greek as alive and connected with 
his aflfairs. 

We know that the coming of the seasons was the signal 
for the holding of the religious festivals, that these early 
settlers believed in a future life, and looked upon their 
departed ancestors as able to confer blessing upon their 
faithful descendants. There is no reason for thinking that 
images were worshiped in this period, nor that the references 
to animals and their connection with the gods pointed back 
to a totemic organization of society. In all probability each 
community had its god of the heavens who sent the light 
and the rain. There must have been a mother goddess, 
representing "Mother Earth," the kindly and loving giver 
of life. There is evidence that they worshiped '*a queen 
of wild beasts, the patron of the chase," "the shepherd god," 
"a god of fire," and **the spirits of the sea." As the Greeks 
proceeded southward in their migrations and came into 
contact with the older civilization, they took over certain 
gods already in possession. Among these undoubtedly 
were goddesses hitherto unknown but rapidly incorporated 
in their worship. Their Greek names give no clue as to 
their origin, thus making the problem of their Greek or non- 
Greek origin the more difficult of solution. 

Determined partly by the physical configuration of Greece, 
divided by the sea and the mountains into tiny sections, but 
as much if not more so by the bent of the Greek mind, with 
its independence and love of individual initiative, Greek 



GREECE AND ROME 109 

civilization took the form of small independent principalities 
or states. Each secluded valley or plain centered in a city, 
and this city exercised its sway until the mountain or the 
sea interposed and brought to an end its authority. Attempts 
were made to break through this division into small states 
and form larger units, even a kingdom or empire, but from 
the beginning to the end the Greek polis, the city, and the 
surrounding territory was the unit and determined the char- 
acteristic form of Greek political life. In like manner Greek 
religion was a religion of city states, each city differing in 
some particulars from its neighbors, with its own divinities 
and its own worship. With all the unity attained in later 
times the local forms were so tenacious that they never 
ceased to mark off the cult of one state from that of another. 
The bearing of these two tendencies, the one divisive and 
the other unifying, is highly important in the study of Greek 
religion. The best known and greatest of the gods of 
Greece was Zeus. Connected with the overarching sky, the 
giver of the bounties which come with the light of the sun 
and the rain, Zeus was early acknowledged as a god by all 
the Greek states, but in each case the Zeus worshiped had 
a secondary title. This title was local and represented the 
god peculiar to each state, which had been retained when 
he had been identified with the great Zeus. The small local 
community also made possible one of the forms of worship, 
the communal meal, in which all the citizens took part. 
In it the close connection between the city and its gods was 
sacramentally celebrated. The god was looked upon as 
kindly disposed toward his own people, not an angry god 
in need of propitiation. So these occasions were joyous 
festivals, the eating together of the divinity and his people, 
far removed from the awful sacrifices to which other peoples 
gave themselves in times of stress. Greek religion had its 
somber, more tragic phase, but in general, particularly in 
the earlier period, was marked by an airy cheerfulness and 
delight in beauty which were characteristic of the race. 



no THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 



The Homeric Contribution 

The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer reflect the life and 
religion of about B. C. looo. These epics fulfilled the two- 
fold function of depicting the gods as they were conceived 
by the people at an early day and of crystallizing for hun- 
dreds of years the religious ideas of the growing commu- 
nities of Greece. The stories contained in these poems were 
composed to be sung, and, repeated many times over at 
banquets and festivals, filled the imagination of the people 
with the stately mythology and picturesque legends of their 
own distant past. 

The chief religious characteristic of the epics is anthropo- 
morphism. The gods were personalities like men and 
women. They were superhuman, to be sure, but for all 
that they were only human beings built large. Their power 
was manifested in nature; the world was ruled from Mount 
Olympus, the residence of King Zeus and his celestial court. 
He, as the chief ruler of the universe, guided the events of 
human history and determined the destiny of men. While 
every conception of the gods is cast in a human mold, 
the epic always insists on a difference between men and 
gods. The gods are not confronted with the trials and 
suflferings of men ; they are immortal and live on heavenly 
nectar and ambrosia, far removed from death and decay. 
Yet they are not omniscient, and in their passions and feel- 
ings are just like ordinary men. It is almost an indignity 
to man to say that the gods are like him, because in their 
intercourse on Olympus the gods are guilty of such amours 
and give exhibition of such passions as to bring a blush to 
the cheek of ordinary men at their bare recital. So we feel, 
and so the thinkers and writers of the classical age in 
Greece felt. They condemned such conduct in gods as well 
as in men, refusing to believe that any god worthy of their 
reverence should show such weaknesses. It may be said 
that while in the epic the gods appear at a disadvantage, 



GREECE AND ROME iii 

living in the company of one another in the celestial heights, 
as individuals and in their relation to men and human 
affairs they are seen in an entirely different light, thus 
emphasizing the difference between the Homeric mythol- 
ogy and the religion of the Greek states. In the cults the 
gods appear as objects v^orthy of reverence and worship, 
looked upon in the light of the religious traditions which had 
grown up around them in the local centers. 

Zeus was always the greatest of the gods, and such had 
he been from the earliest times of which we have any knowl- 
edge. He accompanied the Greeks as far as their colonies 
were planted and became more than any other the national 
god. He was "the protector of political and social groups 
from the state to the household. He also took under his 
especial cognizance moral relations among men."^ Artemis 
is the goddess of wild nature, and takes life, but, strange to 
say, is the protector of all life as well. In the end she is 
presented as a chaste huntress, punishing those who do not 
remain pure and clean. Apollo, the model of manly beauty 
and perfection, is a shepherd and the deity of the shep- 
herds. At the same time he becomes the god of revelation 
and at Delphi renders decisions on perplexing practical 
questions. Here all Greece comes and offers him homage, 
thus quickening the latent sense of unity which Greece so 
much needed. Hermes was another shepherd god and closely 
associated with Apollo. He was so swift of foot that he 
came to be recognized as the messenger of the gods. 

Besides these there were Poseidon, the god of the sea; 
Athena, second only to Zeus, the patroness of civilization, 
the inventive genius, skilled in arts and industries. Aphro- 
dite, the beautiful goddess of fertility and of love; Hera, 
the wife of Zeus, presiding over husbandry and industry, 
the patroness of married women; Hephaistos, the skillful 
artificer, patron of craftsmen, god of fire and the forge; 
Ares, the warrior, the fickle god, husband of Aphrodite; 

* G. F. Moore, History of Religions, vol. i, p. 416. 



112 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

Demeter, "Mother Earth," the goddess of the fertile soil 
and of tillage, who at a later date emerges into great prom- 
inence in the Eleusinian Mysteries. There are many other 
divinities, each preserving his individuality despite the num- 
ber of the gods in the pantheon. There was no worship of 
gods seeking human ill. If at any time ill fortune came, it 
was because the gods, capricious like men, were temporarily 
angry. There was nothing vague or mystical about the 
Greek idea of divinity. The outlines were clear, the form 
perfect, and everything connected with the conception of 
the worship of the gods was beautiful and harmonious. 
Unfortunately, "they were not far enough off or holy enough 
to make religion so potent a factor as it might be in Greek 
life.'" 

While in general the relation between gods and men is 
kindly and familiar, there is another side. Death is present, 
and is only baleful and horrid. There is some sense of 
wrongdoing and the need of sacrifice in view of sin. There 
is a lower world, the abode of the Chthonian, or nether- 
earth, gods, whose shadow falls at times over the path of 
man even in sunny Greece. Worship, however, is more of a 
companionship, doing reverence to a great king in the heav- 
enly realm, without any of the cringing fear and abject 
servility so common in other religions. Combined with an 
artistic temperament of the finest quality, religion expressed 
itself in outward adornment of exquisite beauty. All the 
Greeks did was beautiful and harmonious, and in no feature 
of their life was the result more telling or more influential 
for all future generations than in the temples of their gods. 
By the time of the epic poems all the coarse and cruel fea- 
tures of the cult had been put away and every expression 
of the religious sentiment was in accord with the finest taste, 
a fitting counterpart to the beauties of nature and art to be 
seen on all sides. 



•Arthur Fairbanks, Greek Religion, p. 148. (American Book Co. 
New York, 1910.) 



GREECE AND ROME 113 

The Mysteries 

Not for centuries after the rise of the epic did the worship 
find its full development. Temples grew in beauty and ele- 
gance, images were gradually introduced, and the ceremonial 
became more ornate and finished in form and content. But 
in all we have described there was little chance for the indi- 
vidual as an individual to express his own religious emo- 
tions. Everything was performed by the family or clan or 
city; it was corporate worship with little reference to the 
individual. But by the seventh century before our era the 
individual had come to a place of importance as a citizen in 
the city-state, and with this new attainment were born new 
needs and aspirations which could not be satisfied by the 
formal, though beautiful and decorous, worship of the cor- 
porate body of citizens. He needed and demanded what 
was more personal and individual and vital. 

Far to the north in Thrace lived a strange god named 
Dionysus. He was "the old spirit of vegetable life, incar- 
nate in the bull, incarnate in the wine." "His worship was 
of a distinctly orgiastic character. Groups of his wor- 
shipers, mainly women, found their way at night with 
torches into wild glens on the mountains; the music of 
drums and cymbals and flutes stirred sensitive spirits till 
their whirling dances and wild summons to the god induced 
a religious frenzy; serpents were fondled, the young of 
wild animals were now suckled by human mothers, now torn 
in pieces and eaten raw. The fawn-skin garment, the wand 
tipped with a fir cone and wreathed in ivy, sometimes horns 
attached to the head, recalled the god to whose service they 
were devoted." The idea in all this wild worship was "the 
identification of the worshipers and the god. The wilder 
the frenzy, the more the worshiper felt himself free from 
the restraints of the body and the restraints of the material 
world."" All this was incongruous with the orderly and 

'Quotations from Arthur Fairbanks, Greek Religion, p. 241. 



114 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

beautiful worship of the Olympian gods and could only find 
its way into Greek life because of a deep need unsatisfied 
by the regular forms of the established religion. It is true 
that the crudeness of the frenzied practices was toned down 
as they came into the south and became a permanent feature 
of Greek religious life, but we are dealing in Dionysus wor- 
ship with something foreign, which could only have been 
admitted because of new desires which were stirring in the 
hearts of the people. A longing for purification, a desire to 
experience religion in the inner life, and the hope of immor- 
tality were abroad and could not be stifled. 

Another expression of the same spirit was the increasing 
importance attached to the worship of Demeter, already 
referred to as goddess of the soil and crops. According to 
the myth, Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, is seized 
by Hades and carried away to the lower world. Demeter, 
controlling the growth of the grain, brings men and gods to 
the point of famine by failing in her grief to perform her 
wonted function. Zeus is compelled to intervene and suc- 
ceeds in bringing Persephone back to earth and her mother. 
But, having tasted the food of Hades, she must return and 
spend a third of the year with him, but in the spring returns 
with the blooming flowers and rejoices the hearts of all. The 
touching story took renewed hold on the imagination of the 
Greeks, and as a feature in the mysteries of Eleusis became 
especially prominent in the classical age at Athens. The res- 
cue of Persephone from the land of the shades becomes the 
earnest of their expectation that men, too, might look for 
a real immortality on the other side of the grave. 'Tt is 
another instance of the resuscitation of plant life after the 
winter's death taken as the promise and proof that man, 
too, may rise to newness of life."* 

The great Eleusinian mysteries were performed at Athens 
and the adjacent Eleusis in the fall of the year, and became 
a part of the established religion. The procession of the 

*G. F. Moore, History of Religions, p. 45of. 



GREECE AND ROME 115 

initiated and the neophytes as it wended its way slowly to 
the sacred precincts of Eleusis was in itself impressive. 
There the ceremonies, of which we have exceedingly scant 
information, lasted two or three days. The important thing 
was not the doctrine which was imparted but the impression 
made. The myth of Demeter and Persephone was doubtless 
enacted, vividly picturing the return of the soul from the 
clutches of death. The purpose of all the rites and cere- 
monies was to satisfy the longing for immortality by the 
assurance which comes through an emotional reaction. So 
strong must have been the desire and so slightly was it min- 
istered to by the ancient state cults that the mysteries at 
Eleusis, and others which were less famous, continued to 
exert an influence until Christianity superseded the old 
paganism. 

There were still other manifestations of the same reach- 
ing out after a religion which touched the inner life. The 
Orphic brotherhoods, wandering evangelists of a new life, 
were to be met all over Greece. For a time in the fifth and 
fourth centuries B. C. they exerted a more wide-reaching 
influence than any other religious agency. They came into 
Greece in connection with one of the waves of the worship 
of Dionysus which swept over the country. They received 
their name from Orpheus, the sweet singer, who charmed 
the wild beasts and fierce men by his strains, and is even said 
to have been able to move trees and stones. Grieving over 
his wife, whom he had failed to rescue from Hades, he 
betook himself to the mountain fastnesses, where he was 
killed by the maenads, who tore him limb from hmb. Here 
was tragedy and pathos suflicient to appeal to the deepest feel- 
ings of men. More than any of the other mysteries the Orphic 
religion was concerned with the next life. It preached its 
gospel to the individual, calling upon men to put away evil, 
to accept a new way of salvation, and to enter into mystic 
and sacramental union with their god. Unlike the Eleusinian 
mysteries, which were incorporated into the established reli- 



Ii6 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

gion, the Orphic faith was a kind of vagrant, outside the 
regular channels of religious life. This very fact serves, 
however, to emphasize the inadequacy of the old formal 
cults and the need for just the gospel which the Orphic 
preachers proclaimed. 

The Elusinia was almost exclusively Greek, Roman citi- 
zens being the only outsiders to be admitted to the mystic 
rites. The Orphic brotherhoods, on the contrary, had a 
message for all men, "Greek and barbarian, bond and free." 
Man, they said, is half-divine and belongs to ''the kindred 
of God." He may in this life have communion with the 
deity and in the next, after being purified from all his stains, 
may have fellowship with him forever. This has a decid- 
edly Christian sound; it is, in fact, the high water mark of 
Greek religion, only to be surpassed by the coming of a reli- 
gion which could in a more complete manner fulfill the moral 
and spiritual aspirations which Orphism could only par- 
tially satisfy. 

The Philosophers 

At the same time the gospel of personal religion was re- 
ceiving a wide hearing in Greece another movement, even 
more significant for the future, was coming to its own and 
making its contribution to Greek culture. It was the rise of 
the philosopher and the philosophic poet. They, rather than 
the priests, dominated the thought life of the Greeks and 
gave to the people the most worthy ideas of God and the 
soul which have come to us out of paganism. It was secu- 
lar literature unhampered by the restraints of ecclesiastical 
authority. The priesthoods of Greece never assumed con- 
trolHng authority over the opinions and actions of men. 
They had no sacred scriptures to which they could appeal as 
authoritative and which might serve as a touchstone of 
orthodoxy. The result was that there were no doctrines 
which formed a body of dogma to which all might be com- 
pelled to conform. Nowhere in the ancient world, and only 



GREECE AND ROME 117 

in comparatively recent years in Christendom, has such lib- 
erty prevailed as in Greece. It was the very atmosphere 
which they breathed. The human mind was loosed to ven- 
ture the hardest problems and to master the world of intel- 
lect and of nature. Well was it that this opportunity came 
to men of such consummate ability. Never have the two in 
such measure been found in juxtaposition even down to 
our own time. The Greeks have taught us how to think, 
and we sit at their feet to-day. Their minds ranged over 
the whole field of human learning, and were irresistibly 
drawn to look into the human heart and interpret the 
thoughts and desires which religion had implanted. 

The Odes of Pindar, one of the earliest of the poets, 
begin already to turn away from the epic account of the 
gods and their actions. With all his love for the old stories he 
does not hesitate to reject what is crude and immoral. He 
will not believe that the gods are guilty of any such conduct, 
and considers it blasphemy to impute wrong deeds to them. 
The great dramatic poets have their contribution to make. 
To them there is unity in the moral order of the universe. 
Zeus is raised to a lofty position as the governor of the 
world. His righteous rule extends over all men and holds 
them to the exacting standards of justice and honor. Each 
in his own way, the three great dramatic poets, ^schylus, 
Sophocles, and Euripides, show little patience with the 
stories of the gods, and exhibit the Nemesis of wrong-doing 
and the tragic consequences of hate. They were on the side 
of righteousness and the higher conception of man and God. 

Similarly, the great philosophers of the classical period, 
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, were leaders in moral as well 
as intellectual development. Particularly was this true of 
the first two named. Socrates was intent on pricking the 
bubble of conceit for men who were self-satisfied and com- 
placent in their theories, but more than that he was con- 
stantly seeking to build men up in virtue. For Socrates 
virtue is defined as knowledge, so that to know things as 



ii8 THE RELIGIONS OE MANKIND 

they are and to see clearly is to be good. A deeper concep- 
tion of morality has taken us far past this stage, but the deep 
feeling that there is a spiritual presence in the world working 
for righteousness and the unconquerable hope of immor- 
tality, which made him calm and even cheerful in the pres- 
ence of a tragic death, mark Socrates as one of the great 
souls in the history of ethics and religion. 

Plato was the pupil of Socrates. He must have it that 
the gods are good, that they will never stoop to evil in any 
form. Thus, being righteous themselves, they demand the 
same morality in men. Receiving from his great master an 
ethical and spiritual outlook on life, Plato went much fur- 
ther and elaborated his philosophy into a system whose influ- 
ence is in many respects as powerful to-day as in past ages. 
We live in a spiritual world in which ideas are the most real 
and important ingredient. The great Idea is God and he is 
one. Thus Plato was laying the foundations for a theistic 
interpretation of the universe. In fact, he has been called 
"the founder of theistic philosophy.'"' Aristotle, "the master 
of those who know," is far more interested in the world of 
nature around him. He is the man of science as well as the 
philosopher. His God is farther away from men than that 
of Plato. Man is midway between God and the physical 
universe and so has a nature both spiritual and earthly. He 
has no conception of immortality as a personal experience, 
as was taught by Plato and Socrates. But with many dif- 
ferences in outlook upon life and its problems Aristotle 
takes his place with his great predecessors in the insistence 
of his moral demands and in his behef in a unified universe 
controlled and held together by a single spiritual Being 
over all. 

In the later period as we approach the Christian era sev- 
eral philosophies emerge which seek to interpret life to a 
changing, dissatisfied age. Epicureanism is not guilty of 
recommending a life of indulgence, as has been charged, 

' G. F. Moore, op. cit., p. 499. 



GREECE AND ROME 119 

but it has no religious message. Believing that a life of 
contentment can only be lived if fear of the gods and dread 
foreboding concerning the future be eliminated, it pro- 
ceeded to construct a philosophy v^^ith no reference to the 
spiritual world either now or hereafter. A very different 
viewpoint was that occupied by Stoicism, stern and forbid- 
ding as it was in so many features. There is a God, a living 
God, who is present in every atom of the universe, and this 
God is a spirit. But when spirit is defined it is seen not to 
be spiritual in any sense at all. It is matter like everything 
else, though matter in the more ethereal form of fire and 
vapor. But it was in respect of morality that the Stoics 
had a message which reached many of the finest spirits of 
the age. Good and evil exist side by side, and it is man's 
part to choose between them. It is his to choose virtue and 
devote himself to it. He is to do so solely for virtue's sake, 
not for any good that may come by so doing — that were to 
defeat the very end he has in view. Sternly he must sup- 
press his impulses and live untouched by any emotional 
appeals. It was no milk for babes, this Stoic creed. Small 
wonder it found lodgment in the hearts of many of the 
noblest men. It was exalted and far-reaching in its demands 
on life and offered standing room for men who would not 
be drawn down into the unethical thinking and low living 
of the mass of the people around them. 

But another idea was abroad in the land, the idea that 
matter is intrinsically evil. Basing their teaching on Plato 
and Pythagoras, these Neopythagoreans placed God, ''the 
principle of good," in contrast and in conflict with matter, 
which is evil and only evil. Men are partakers of the divine 
nature, but are in danger of being drawn down into the 
vileness of their natural environment. This can only be 
prevented by overcoming their fleshly desires through a 
strict regimen, which included becoming vegetarians and 
celibates. 

At the same time many men in Greece were turning their 



120 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

eyes to the mysterious East, for out of the East were com- 
ing strange religions which found ready acceptance in the 
lands of the West. We shall have more to say concerning 
these mystery religions in connection with the later days 
of the Roman religion, but mention is made of them here 
because in Greece as well as Rome they found congenial 
soil in which to grow. 

The last phase of the development of the Greek intellect 
was Neoplatonism. It based its teaching on the idealistic 
philosophy of Plato, but added an element to which the 
great philosopher was a stranger. It was philosophy touched 
with emotion. It also partook of the prevailing thought of 
the day that matter was evil. God was separated from man 
by a great chasm, even though man originally came from 
God. But man has forgotten his origin and his birthright 
and goes about his affairs unmindful of his heritage. He 
may, however, get back. This is to be done by stages, step 
by step regaining what had been lost, until in the end he 
loses himself in the God from whom he had come. Only 
enough has been said about Neoplatonism and the other 
philosophies to indicate that they were religious; that they 
dealt not only with conduct but with salvation ; that they 
attempted to meet the needs of men and women who in an 
age of confusion were seeking the light, and that they were 
very evidently preparing the way for the coming of the 
gospel of Jesus Christ, which gathered up into itself all the 
elements of worthy appeal to be found in the philosophies 
which had preceded it and which in addition could embody 
in a spotless personality the very essence of its living power 
— and this the Greek philosophies could not do. 

Early Roman Religion 

The mistake often has been made of thinking that Roman 
religion was about the same as Greek religion. The mis- 
take could easily be made because Greek religion was trans- 
ported to Rome and became the possession of the Roman 



GREECE AND ROME 121 

people. But before the Greek influence began to be felt 
Rome had a religion of its own, and the character of this 
religion must be understood before the later mixture of 
Greek and Roman ideas can be appreciated. Then it will 
be seen how distinctive the Roman contribution was and 
how its influence was a powerful factor in the later faith of 
the city and empire of Rome. 

The early religion of the people of Rome was above every- 
thing else practical. They were an agricultural people and 
their religion was suited to their agricultural needs. Already 
we begin to see the distinctive character of whatever is 
Roman. These people, unlike the Greeks, were not a think- 
ing people; they were practical. They had no mythology 
and no philosophic theories of the origins of things. They 
were men who did not ask questions beyond the pragmatic 
question. Is it useful? does it work? They were men of 
law and order and authority with capacity to conquer and 
to rule. They conquered the world of the Mediterranean 
basin and even beyond, and out of the loose fragments 
welded an empire, which was one of the most magnificent 
products of human genius. They made little contribution to 
the intellectual Hfe of the world, but they developed one of 
the most important gifts of the ancient to the modern world, 
the Roman Law. The empire went to pieces when the bar- 
barians from the north came pouring over the defenses along 
the Rhine and the Danube and made the old empire their 
home, but the influence of Rome still lives. Our laws bear 
the impress of the various Roman codes, particularly that 
of the Emperor Justinian, and in the Roman Catholic Church 
we have in every country of the world the inheritor of the 
organizing genius of the ancient Romans, which exercises 
over its adherents to-day the same authority, and demands 
the same implicit obedience as did Rome under both the 
republic and the empire. Rome richly deserves the title 
"eternal" both as respects her continued existence as a city 
and her influence in the world. 



122 THE RELIGIOXS OF MANKIND 

The gods of the Romans were powers who were expected 
to do the things they were capable of doing. They were 
powers, Jiumifta, with scarcely enough personality to be 
called gods. No images were made of them because the 
Roman mind had never conceived of its divinities as per- 
sonal. Each power had its own function and was not known 
in any other way than in its performance. This caused a 
division of labor among the powers which seems to reduce 
the gods to very small dimensions. To illustrate, "Seia has 
to do with the corn before it sprouts, Segetia with com 
when shot up. Tutilina with corn stored in the granary, 
Nodotus has for his care the knots in the straw. There is a 
god Door, a goddess Hinge, a god Threshold. Each act in 
opening infancy has its god or goddess. The child has 
Cunina when lying in the cradle, Statina when he stands, 
Edula when he eats, Locutius when he begins to speak, 
Adeona when he makes for his mother, Abeona when he 
leaves her; forty-three such gods of childhood have been 
counted. Pilumnus, god of the pestle, and Diverra, goddess 
of the broom, may close our small sample of the limitless 
crowd.'" This is animism pure and simple, animism unde- 
veloped into the higher forms which point toward polythe- 
ism. With no imagination the Roman was content with such 
a relation to the thousand powers around him, each doing its 
little part in the practical work of life. Such was the condi- 
tion in the earliest day, but later certain of the divinities 
assumed an importance unknown before and became the 
greater gods of the state religion. Jupiter holds the first 
place, and is called Optimus Maximus, and next comes 
Mars, who ( with Quirinus) is the God of War. Janus, after 
whom the first month of our year is named, is the god of 
opening, the old Roman god of the door at the entrance of 
the house. The last of these larger gods of the early days 
was Vesta, originally the goddess of the family hearth and 
latterly the guardian of the state hearth. 

•Allan Menzies, History of Religion, p. 307. 



GREECE AND ROME 123 

The religion of the family, as has just been intimated, was 
the earliest form of Roman religion. The only priest in that 
day was the father of the family, the paterfamilias. He 
offered the sacrifices and led the family in its reHgious duties. 
Certain of the earliest deities were distinctively family gods. 
Vesta, the fire of the hearth, in which the family life cen- 
tered, came first. The duty of caring for the fire and keep- 
ing the hearth clean fell to the mistress of the house, who 
thus had her part in the family worship. In a later day, 
when Vesta became a goddess of the state, the place of the 
mistress of the house was taken by six vestal virgins, 
charged with the keeping of the fire and other duties spe- 
cially assigned to them. The Lares, or ancestral spirits, 
watched over the household, and the Penates protected the 
storerooms, on which the sustenance of the family depended. 
The Manes, ''the kindly deities," were looked upon as well 
disposed to the living, as their name indicates. Besides 
these each individual had his own protecting divinity ; in the 
case of a man it was his Genius, of a woman her Juno. 
These "good angels," which seem often to be Httle more 
than one's other self, have watch-care through life over one's 
fortunes and at death go out into the great unknown 
with him. 

As the old family religion was enlarged into the state 
religion it became in a very definite sense an affair of the 
state. The ministers of religion were state officials, ap- 
pointed and performing their duties like other officials. 
True to their genius, the Romans organized this state reli- 
gion as thoroughly as the government, of which in reality 
it was a part. The cult was purely a formal performance 
of the ritual and ceremonial with no vestige of sentiment 
about it. Great care was exercised to secure correctness and 
precision in the conduct of the worship, for the efficacy of 
the rite depended upon just these things. Like a stern 
earthly potentate who demands that he be approached with 
circumspection and that he be addressed with the proper 



124 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

titles, so the gods were looked upon as making the same 
demands. The gods could be counted upon to prevent evils 
from befalling the people only if they on their part per- 
formed their religious duties punctiliously and thus gave 
them the honor which was their due. 

The number of festival days was large. This made nec- 
essary the organization of the religious officials, that all 
the duties might be properly performed. The flamens were 
priests assigned to this or that god, on whom the conduct 
of the worship rested. The augurs were the official diviners, 
set to the task of ascertaining the will of the god by various 
forms of divination, notably the observation of the flight of 
birds and the examination of the livers of sheep. Other 
groups might also be named, like the Arval brothers, who 
officiated before the goddess who provided the needed crops, 
and the Luperci, or wolf-men, who sacrificed goats and 
dogs to a rustic god on the occasion of his annual festival. In 
charge of the affairs of rehgion was the pontifex, of whom 
there were at first five, later fifteen, whose duties were 
varied, for, being state officials, they were charged with 
duties now looked upon as purely secular. With their con- 
ception of the gods as powers, scarcely personal, there was 
little likelihood that any attempt would be made to repre- 
sent them in images in human form, and with no images 
there would be no temples, where the gods might dwell. 
This development was not reached until a later day, when 
Rome came under the influence of foreign cults. 

The Contact with Greece 

With all the changes introduced into Roman religion by 
contact with outside cults what has already been described 
continued as the religion of the people and the state down 
through the period of the republic, which lasted from 
B. C. 509 to 2^. Before that was the age of the kings, and 
after that the empire, which so far as the west was con- 
cerned, came to an end in A. D. 476. What w^e have now 



GREECE AND ROME 125 

to recount took place in the days of the republic. But even 
before that Roman religion had been modified by contact 
with a people close at hand. The Etruscans lived in Italy 
just north of the Tiber and were thus early brought into 
contact with the Romans as they began to settle, say about 
B. C. 750, on the hills south of that stream. It was Etruscan 
influence which was responsible for the building of a wall 
around the settlements on the hilltops, thus making Rome a 
city with a sense of unity and pride in itself. And the same 
influence was responsible for the pomerium, or plowed fur- 
row around the city within which no foreign deity might 
be allowed to come. Thus Rome was provided through this 
Etruscan contact with both a material and a spiritual wall, 
which raised the people to a hitherto unknown sense of 
their unique identity. They were now a complete, self- 
sufficient power, able both to defend themselves and enter 
upon the conquests which carried their eagles almost to the 
bounds of the then known world. The Etruscan also intro- 
duced the temple, or templum, which in that day did not 
mean a building, but a rectangular area marked off on the 
ground, which was supposed to be a counterpart of a heav- 
enly rectangle, and from which the flight of birds could be 
effectively observed. As Professor Jesse Benedict Carter 
suggests,' the earliest religion of the Roman people, un- 
touched by outside influences, appealed to the social instinct 
— it was the religion of the family and family interests. 
Under the influence of the Etruscans the religion made a 
strong appeal to national instinct — Rome became a city, self- 
conscious and strong and able to make a name for itself in 
the world. 

The current of Greek influence began about the time the 
republic was established. The story of the beginnings of 
this contact with Greece is shrouded in legend, but deserves 
to be told even in so short a sketch as this. *'A later age, 

'The Religious Life of Ancient Rome, p. 63. (Houghton Mifflin, 
Boston, 191 1.) 



126 THE RELIGION'S OF MANKIND 

from whom history has no secrets, with a cheap would-be 
omniscience told of the old woman who visited Tarquin 
(the last of the kings) and offered him nine books for a 
certain price, and when he refused to pay it, went away, 
burned three, and then returning offered him at the orig- 
inal price the six that were left ; on his again refusing she 
went away, burned three more and finally offered at the 
same old price the three that remained, which he accepted. 
Except as a sidelight on the character of the early Greek 
trader the story is worthless.'" The fact is that Rome came 
early into contact with the Greek colonies of Southern Italy 
and at some time about the beginning of the republic came 
into possession of the Sibylline books, the traditional story 
of the acquisition of which from the old woman of Cumae 
has just been told. These books were treasured by the 
Romans as a sacred possession ; they were placed for safe 
keeping in the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the 
Capitoline Hill in the care of guardians specially appointed 
for that purpose, the Quindecemviri, or the Fifteen. The 
books were kept secret and under the control of the Senate, 
who determined when the volumes might be consulted. All 
this shows the reverence in which these mysterious books 
were held. Now, the important thing about them was that 
whenever they were consulted the answer always came that 
certain deities, Greek deities of course, should be introduced 
and worshiped. This does not account for the coming of 
Greek religion into Italy, for it had been there long before 
and had already begun to influence Rome, but it does place 
the sanction of official approval on the reception of these 
foreign deities and worships. So important is this remark- 
able movement that Professor Carter says of it, "The study 
of the outward and the inward effects of the Sibylline books 
is therefore the real history of religion in the first half of 
the republic."* 



•Carter. The Religion of Numa, p. 65. (Macmillan, London, 1906.) 
"Carter, op. cit., p. 71. 



GREECE AND ROME 127 

In the year B. C. 496 Rome was in difficulty; her crops 
had failed and this rendered her position insecure in the war 
with the Latins then being waged. Recourse was had to the 
SibyUine books and the result was the introduction into 
Rome of the worship of Demeter, Dionysus, and Persephone, 
Greek deities famiHar to our ears. These foreign divinities 
were not allowed within the pomerium, so continued to be 
looked upon as outsiders. They dropped their Greek names 
and were given Roman names, names of already existing 
Roman gods and goddesses. By taking their names these 
new Greek divinities crowded the Roman gods out of their 
place until all that was left was a name. Demeter became 
known as Ceres, an old fertility goddess about whom little 
is known. But now Demeter with the old name Ceres be- 
comes an important goddess with a splendid temple and 
games to her honor. Dionysus is identified with Liber, the 
patron of the vine, and so completely absorbs what individ- 
uality Liber had developed that little is left of the Roman 
god save the name. Persephone, or Kore, is identified 
with Libera, the female counterpart of Liber, just men- 
tioned. But there was such confusion that, when in a later 
day Persephone was again introduced into Rome, this time 
without change of name, as a goddess supposed to be un- 
known before in the city, we have two Roman goddesses, 
Proserpina and Libera, both representing the same Greek 
deity. 

After this Greek gods and goddesses came into Rome one 
after another until they were all there. Rome had enlarged 
her pantheon until it seemed literally to include all the 
gods of the countries with whom she was in touch. Most 
of these gods were brought in at some time of stress. They 
did not come in deliberately to take the place of the old 
Roman gods, but to perform some function for which no 
Roman god seemed prepared. The very idea of deity was 
changed by the process, the Romans coming in the end to 
look upon their Greek gods with Latin names just as the 



128 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

Greeks looked upon them, personalities like men and women, 
with images and temples in which they lived. The old ideas 
and practices languished and the city was filled wnth new t 
forms of worship. It was a veritable conquest, Rome the ' 
Conqueror vanquished in the things of the mind and the 
spirit by the clever and versatile Greek. Zeus may be identi- 
fied with Jupiter, Hera with Juno, Poseidon with Neptune, 
Athena with Minerva, Ares with Mars, Aphrodite with 
Venus, Artemis with Diana, Hermes with Mercury, but in 
the identification the Greek god lived on in power and influ- 
ence despite the Latin name which had been assumed. In 
the end these new deities were admitted within the pome- 
rium and thus were looked upon as thoroughly Roman. 
From the time of the Second Punic War, about the year 
B. C. 200, no differences can be detected between the Roman 
and the Greek elements in the cult : it is a new religion in 
fact, the Graeco-Roman, and such it remained until the day 
when it disappeared with the oncoming of Christianity. 

The last use of the Sibylline books of which we have any 
record was in the crisis of B. C. 205, when Hannibal was in 
Italy and Rome was in danger of falling into his hands. 
The books were consulted and the answer came that the 
enemy could be overcome if the Great Mother of the Gods 
should be brought to Rome from her home in Central Asia 
Minor. But now we have come to that period in the history 
of Roman religion when a new element, not Roman, or even 
Greek, finds its way into the worship and changes it still 
further into a compound faith, with ingredients gathered 
from all the lands of the East. To understand this influ- 
ence is the final task in order to estimate the religion of 
pre-Christian Rome. 

The Influence of the East 

EHiring the period of the republic (about B. C. 500 to the 
beginning of our era) Rome became mistress of the world. 
Never had there been such an empire. Wealth poured into 



GREECE AND ROME 129 

the city and Rome became the metropolis of the world, the 
center from which radiated all the ideas and forces which 
came to a focus in the multiform activities of its busy life. 
But Rome had changed ; she was not as religious as she had 
been in the simpler days of the past. Greek philosophers 
had come in with their criticism of the old religious beliefs 
and aided the disintegration which had set in. The deteri- 
oration was not only religious but moral. Few people can 
stand such rapid increase of wealth and influence, and the 
Romans were no exception to the rule. The institution of 
games in connection with the triumphs of her generals and 
the religious festivals demoralized the people and led to 
such excesses that the morals of Rome in the centuries just 
before and just after Christ have become a byword and a 
reproach in all succeeding generations. The offices of reli- 
gion in connection with the state cult fell into disuse and 
men could not be found to fill positions which were vacant. 
Such ceremonies as were performed were carried through 
only in the most perfunctory manner, like any other state 
function. The very knowledge of some old religious cere- 
monies perished and others were neglected, so that they had 
lost all meaning. It was a desperate situation which pre- 
vailed at the time when Julius Caesar passed off the scene 
and his nephew Octavius, known later as Augustus Caesar, 
took the reins of government into his hands and began to 
reign. The days of the Roman empire had come, and 
Augustus proved to be the man of the hour. 

One of the events which mark his reign was the revival 
of religion. It was largely his own work. Augustus rec- 
ognized that without religion a country is lost. He revived 
old ceremonies, filled offices which had been unoccupied for 
years, rebuilt temples, and in every way sought to restore 
the religion to its old place of power in the life of the people. 
He brought in some new features, the most remarkable of 
which was Caesar-worship. At first it was worship of the 
dead rulers of the past, then of the living emperor sitting on 



130 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

the throne in Rome. It was not called exactly by that name; 
the Romans would have resented such a bald statement as 
too much of an innovation. The proposal was to worship 
the "Genius" of the emperor, the shadowy counterpart of the 
living man which was more or less spiritual and other- 
worldly. This was not quite so much a shock to their sensi- 
bilities, but it was only a step removed from the actual wor- 
ship of the emperor himself. This became the one universal 
form of religion and the touchstone of loyalty to the empire. 
By their refusal to perform the rites connected with this 
worship the early Christians were declared treasonous and 
were thrown to the Hons. 

Now, the important fact to keep in mind is that emperor 
worship was an importation. The old Roman might hesi- 
tate at such a step, but it was natural and easy for the Asi- 
atic, and the introduction of the strange idea is an evidence 
of the strength of the influence which had set in from the 
eastern sections of the empire. The old religion had ceased 
to satisfy the desires of even the stern old Romans, and its 
place was being taken by religions which came trooping in 
from Asia and Africa. We have already mentioned the 
coming of the Great Mother of the Gods, whose home had 
been in the wild mountains of Central Asia Minor. King 
Attains presented the deputation which had come from the 
Roman senate with the god in the form of a black aerolite, 
and this was taken to Rome, received with due ceremony — 
and the danger from Hannibal was averted. But who was 
Cybele, the Mother of the Gods, thus brought to Rome, 
so far from her original home? Attis is the husband of 
Cybele, and he is violently killed. She mourns him with 
tumultuous sorrow. He is finally raised to life again amid 
the wildest rejoicing. Such in the briefest space is the 
myth brought with the goddess to Rome in B. C. 205. Her 
worship in Asia Minor was an imitation of the acts depicted 
in the myth, and, as might be expected, was made up of 
wild and uncontrolled orgies. The staid Romans were 



GREECE AND ROME 131 

shocked at these displays and the cult had a checkered 
career in the capital, but in the days of the empire it won its 
way into popular favor and received the sanction of the 
government. There was a procession, which was followed 
by the exercises in the temple, where the old myth was 
retold and reacted, producing "a state of rapturous ecstasy" 
which swept the worshiper off his feet and lifted him into 
union with the deity. As Attis died and was raised to life 
again, so would the worshiper be sure of another life. Union 
with the god was sacramentally achieved by the bloody tau- 
robolium. A man would stand in a deep trench under a 
grating on which a bull was killed, and the blood would 
pour through the grating over the head and body of the 
worshiper. In this bath he believed he had entered into a 
new life by physical contact with the life-giving blood. The 
origin of the rite is obscure, but it doubtless goes back to 
an ancient belief that one could physically transfuse the 
strength of the animal into his body, and then later the whole 
thing was spiritualized into the new birth of the soul. 

Already the reason why such practices, so strange to old 
Roman religion, could exercise so strong an influence is 
evident. There was an emotional appeal which was irre- 
sistible. The ancient faith had no message when men 
began to be alive to new desires and aspirations. The old 
religion was cold and prosaic; these religions which came 
out of the East made an appeal to the senses, were full of 
mystery, and were exceeding human and warm in sym- 
pathy. That they descended to the level of the sensual at 
times did not militate against their success, for there was 
so much more which the old religion did not possess that 
defects, even when seen as such, did not prevent them from 
being acceptable. They were religions of salvation, of re- 
wards and punishment, of Immortality, and, last but not 
least, they demanded personal allegiance based on belief in 
the goodness of the divinity. 

The religion of Isis and Osiris came from Egypt and 



132 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

gathered a large popular following, despite persecution dur- 
ing its earlier days. But it, too, became domesticated andj 
was considered a legitimate faith by the state as well as the] 
people. Here, again, the appeal did not He in its system of] 
thought, nor in its morality, which was exceedingly ques- 
tionable, nor even in its doctrine of cleansing, but in the 
intoxicating seduction of the ritual and the promise of im- 
mortality. Again, in this religion there was a story told 
about Isis and her husband Osiris, who was killed by the 
evil-minded Typhon. Horus, their son, would wreak venge- 
ance on his father's murderer, but in the end Osiris is 
raised to a new life and Typhon is forgiven. At least so 
runs the myth in one of its many forms. But in them all is 
the appeal to the elemental passions of love, hate, vengeance, 
and forgiveness. They are warm with human interest and 
sympathy and come close to the daily life of men and women, 
and this the old religion could never do. 

A variety of beliefs and practices came in from Syria. 
The most famous of the deities was Atargatis, the Dea 
Syria, whose worship was associated with dreadful sensual- 
ity. It could not help but work harm, yet in the ancient 
world there was real confusion between the impure and the 
sacred, and hence greater difficulty in seeing clearly what 
had in it the seeds of evil, especially in religious practice. 
From Syria, too, came astrology, which had its home in 
Babylon, as we have seen, and which now entered into a 
new phase among the peoples of the west. But of all these 
religions that of Mithras is the most interesting and the 
most important. Coming originally out of Persia, Mithras 
was found about the beginning of our era in the mountains 
of Asia Minor. From there it came into Rome about B. C 
70, the last of these Oriental faiths to reach the West. But 
while it was slow in starting on its career of conquest, it 
extended farther than all the others when its message began 
to be known. Carried by merchants and slaves, but espe- 
cially by soldiers, the mithreums, or underground chapels. 



GREECE AND ROME 133 

have been discovered wherever in the wide expanses of the 
empire the Roman legions were stationed. There was 
again the myth of how Mithras by slaying the bull brought 
life and plenty to the world. This scene is depicted on all 
the bas-reliefs in every place of worship. It was a man's 
religion and made surprising moral demands upon its fol- 
lowers. This at once raises it to a level higher than that of 
the other Eastern cults. Through seven grades the initi- 
ates were led until they had attained the highest level. 
Mithras was the god of light and in the later time became 
identified with the sun, and as Sol Invictus, the Invincible 
Sun, was the last embodiment of the pagan idea of deity, 
before it went down forever in the brighter light of another 
religion from the East which was to supersede them all. 

Christianity, then, was one of these Eastern faiths which 
found a welcome in the West and in the end became the 
religion of the whole empire. It, too, had a story to tell, 
of a Saviour who was crucified and who rose again and was 
seen by his disciples. It, too, touched the emotions, and held 
out the promise of immortality. A religion from the East, 
and in some respects like the others, Christianity, however, 
rose to a level of moral sublimity and self- forgetful service 
unattainable by Mithraism or the religion of Isis and the 
Great Mother. And as compared with the other deities, 
even Mithras, the Saviour in Christianity has the advan- 
tage of being a real historical character and of exemplifying 
in his own person all the moral excellencies of his own 
doctrine. 

Suggestions for Further Study 
Greece: 
J. H. Breasted, Ancient Times (New York, 1916), Part III, The 

Greeks. 
Arthur Fairbanks, Greek Religion (New York, 1910). A compact 

but complete survey. 
L. R. Farnell, The Higher Aspects of Greek Religion (New York, 

1912). An illuminating interpretation by one of the leading 

authorities. 



134 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

George Foot Moore, History of Religions (New York, 1913). Vol. I, 

Chaps. XVII-XX. 
Rome: 
J. H. Breasted, Ancient Times, Parts IV and V, dealing with Rome 

and the Roman empire. 
J. B. Carter, The Religion of Numa (New York, 1906). A short 

but helpful survey of the ancient religion. 
Franz Cumont, The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism (Chi 

cago, 191 1 ). The best account of the influence of the East. 
W. Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman PeopU 

(London, 1911). The most extended survey in English of th( 

religion to the time of Augustus. 
George Foot Moore, History of Religions, Vol. I, Chaps. XXI, XXIL 



CHAPTER V 
THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 

The Indo-Europeans and Their Religion 

In the study of the religion of Zoroaster we make the 
transition from the religions which have passed away and 
ceased to be to the living religions of mankind. The wor- 
shipers of Ahura Mazda in India and Persia to-day, small 
in number though they be, are the descendants of those to 
whom the prophet Zoroaster came, and are proud of their 
history and unbroken tradition. The Parsis (a name de- 
rived from ''Persia") in India are an exclusive community 
of about a hundred thousand souls, who have in recent dec- 
ades prospered greatly and have become the best educated 
and most progressive group in the whole land. So, because 
of their long and honorable history and their present position 
of prominence in the land of their adoption, it is altogether 
fitting that we should seek to understand the religion which 
has bound them together so closely. Bristling with difficul- 
ties though the investigation may be, the student finds him- 
self lured on as each step reveals, particularly in the earlier 
development, glimpses of a faith with such a lofty concep- 
tion of the Divine Being and such uncompromising insist- 
ence on morality that he realizes he is deaHng with one of 
the highest religions to be found among men. But before 
taking it up directly it is necessary to place it in its proper 
setting as one of the religions of the Indo-European peoples. 

At a period at least two or three thousand years before 
Christ there roamed on the grassy plateaus and steppes 
either east or west of the Caspian Sea — we cannot say which 
—tribes of nomadic peoples seeking pasturage for their 

135 



136 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

flocks and herds. They were white men, speaking a com- 
mon language, with vivid imaginations and boundless en- 
ergy. For some reason — it may have been the natural in- 
crease of population which tended to overcrowd the regions 
already occupied — groups of these restless nomads would 
start off to find a more congenial home, until in the end 
they were scattered far to the east and south and west, all 
the distance from Ireland and Scotland, in the cold and 
misty west, to the plains of India, under a blazing tropical 
sun. The branch which we know as the Kelts moved west- 
ward at an early date and pushed far to the west into the 
British Isles and France as we know them to-day. They 
were followed by the Teutonic peoples to whom the Anglo- 
Saxons and the Scandinavians belong, and these in turn must 
have been urged westward by the Slavic tribes who finally 
settled in central and eastern Europe. We know little about 
their movements until in the early centuries of our era the 
Teutonic peoples burst through the barriers of the Roman 
empire and changed the whole course of civilization. Other 
branches of the Indo-Europeans also pushed westward and 
southward and had by mingling with the races already pres- 
ent formed the national group which we know as the Greeks 
and the Latins, or Italic people. Even more obscure are the 
movements of still other branches which swarmed into 
Asia Minor, whom we know as Hittites, Phrygians, Scyth- 
ians, and Armenians. 

These all moved toward the west. Others, however, were 
led to take a different direction. They moved toward the 
south and east and finally found a permanent home for 
themselves in Persia and in India. This double branch of 
the original stock is correctly known by the name "Aryan," 
which is frequently but less correctly given to all the Indo- 
European peoples. These Aryans formed one more or less 
homogeneous group for a period sufficiently long to develop 
certain peculiarities which belong to these races, but which 
are not to be found among the peoples who migrated west- 



THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 157 

ward. We do not know when it occurred, but finally the 
Aryans divided into two groups, one going to the southwest 
and finding its home on the bleak, wind-swept plateau of 
Persia, and the other going to the southeast, penetrating the 
passes of the mountain barrier, and finally settling down in 
the plains of northern India. It was among these immi- 
grants into Iran, or Persia, that Zoroaster appeared and 
preached his gospel of one God who demanded righteous- 
ness in his worshipers. 

In the days when all the Indo-European peoples lived in 
more or less close connection with each other they pos- 
«esscd a common language, a common culture, and a com- 
mon religion. As they separated differences began to appear, 
and became more marked as the centuries passed, but cer- 
tain likenesses, particularly in language, were not oblit- 
erated and are used to-day to show the kinship between 
these groups who in so many ways are poles apart in their 
thinking and in their customs. 

We owe much to Professor Otto Schrader for giving (in 
an extensive article, "Aryan Religion," in the Encyclopaedia 
of Religion and Ethics) an account of about all that can 
be gleaned from a great variety of sources concerning this 
early religion. It had two phases, the worship of dead an- 
cestors and the worship of the ^'heavenly ones." Both 
burial and cremation were known and practiced, burial 
being supposed to have preceded cremation. The change 
indicated a different viewpoint, for, while burial was a 
means of continuing the connection between soul and body, 
cremation was intended to separate the soul from its body as 
soon as possible. One form of disposal of the dead did not 
completely displace the other, and we have no means of 
knowing why one was practiced in preference to the other. 
But whatever might be the means used of disposing of their 
bodies, the dead were held in high reverence and elaborate 
rites were practiced in their memory. Gifts of various kinds 
were made to the dead so as to provide them with what they 



138 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

needed in the other world. They were not so far away, and 
could come and really, though invisibly, share in the feast 
which was spread in their honor. They had become more 
powerful in the other world and yet continued to be vitally 
interested in all the concerns of the family. They were 
appealed to for help; they must also be placated, for they 
were looked upon as even more severe than a stern parent 
and quite easily angered. So urgent was the demand that 
the good things of this Hfe be provided for those who had 
passed over that inhuman cruelty was not uncommonly 
exhibited. Even wives and slaves were sent after the de- 
parted one for his comfort, and for a young man who had 
not yet been married and had met an untimely death a 
marriage was performed with a young woman, who was 
then burned or buried aHve with the corpse ! 

The other side of the worship was that of the ''heavenly 
ones." There are evidences of primitive animism, of fetish- 
ism, and of the higher development into the worship of 
certain great powers of nature. In Professor Schrader's 
words, "The worship of the sky and the powers of nature 
connected with it formed the real kernel of the primitive 
Aryan (Indo-European) religion." This means the worship 
of the sun and moon, fire, wind, and water. These gods 
were not named ; they were looked upon as personal, but had 
not been fully personified. The element of magic is quite 
evident in the relations of the worshipers with the powers, 
but genuine religion in the form of sacrifice and prayer raises 
this relationship to a higher level. The father was the first 
priest, but it was not long before a priestly class began to 
develop and take charge of the sacrifices. Only gradually 
were the greater gods personalized and moralized. Until 
that took place the worship of ancestors was a far greater 
moral force than the more sublime worship of the powers 
of nature. Unfortunately, through it all there was the 
somber thread of fatalism, which permeated life with a 
retarding and depressing influence. 



THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 139 

Such was the rehgion of our forefathers and the fore- 
fathers of the peoples of Europe and of many of those in 
Asia Minor, Persia, and India. This short sketch may help 
us to understand the better the development which later 
took place and also the present tendencies in life and thought 
among the great Indo-European family of races and peoples. 

Zoroaster and His Reformation 

While those who were to settle in Persia and in India 
were still together they developed certain common features 
of ritual and belief which remained with them long after 
they became separate peoples. They came to believe in a 
number of gods who were believed in by both in later times. 
Notable among them was Mithras (Mitras in India), who, as 
we have seen, traveled west and found his last home in the 
Roman empire in the last days of paganism. Fire is held in 
high reverence to-day by the Parsis, and harks back to the 
worship of the sacrificial flame by the early Aryans. They 
prepared and venerated the intoxicating Haoma (Soma in 
India), which was to play an important part in later Indian 
religion. The cow had already become sacred and re- 
mained so in both countries. There was already to be 
found an injunction to "good thoughts and good works/' 
and a priesthood of fire-kindlers, who were influential in 
the religion of the people." But as soon as the people sep- 
arated differences of a very fundamental sort began to de- 
velop. The tendency in India was toward speculation, in 
Iran toward the practical and ethical. This cleavage goes 
very deep and marks a difference between the peoples which 
can scarcely be bridged over. We are in different worlds, 
surrounded in each case by a totally different atmosphere. 
In India we of the West feel oppressed by the pall of 
pantheism and the moral inertia which everywhere seem to 
be present, but in Persia in the days of Zoroaster the breezes 

^ The above facts taken from Professor Eduard Meyer, article, 
"Persia," Encyclopaedia Britannica, nth edit. 



140 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

are charged with moral vigor and men see God and human 
life and sin clear-eyed and enter the battle of life intending 
to defeat evil and its agents and come out more than victors 
in the contest. 

Unfortunately, great uncertainty exists relative to the 
Prophet and not many things can be set down with cer- 
tainty. When he lived and where he worked are still sub- 
jects of controversy. The traditional dates are B. C. 660 
for his birth and B. C. 583 for his death. And when such 
authorities as Professor A. V. Williams Jackson and Bishop 
L. C. CasartelH are convinced that these dates are substan- 
tially correct it is impossible to displace them hastily. 
We need only state here, however, that other competent au- 
thorities feel that the facts demand an earlier date, some 
giving B. C. 1000 and others an earlier date still. It would 
make the coincidence even more striking if the traditional 
dates should prove to be correct, for that would bring Zoro- 
aster into the same century with the Buddha, Confucius, 
Pythagoras, and Jeremiah ! Zoroaster was a real historical 
character despite the uncertainty in date and the locality 
where he worked. Professor Jackson has carried many 
others with him in his belief that the prophet came from the 
northwest of what is now Persia and, traveling eastward, 
found his life work in the northeastern part of the country. 
Here he preached, and finally succeeded in converting the 
king, Vishtaspa, to his doctrine. An intensely practical man, 
the Prophet preached the doctrine of work, especially the 
care of the cattle which they were to protect from the wild 
Turanians of the North. There, after many years of teach- 
ing, while engaged in the'*holy wars" in defense of the faith, 
he was killed at the hand of an enemy, "a Turanian whose 
name is preserved to ill renown." 

Zoroaster, or Zarathustra, as it is in the old Persian, must 
have been a remarkable character, and, if he had been fol- 
lowed by a succession of like-minded men, as was the case 
among the Israelites, might have produced effects as wide- 



THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 141 

reaching as the religion of the Old Testament. But this 
solitary prophet found himself proclaiming a message little 
appreciated by the men of his time. Unfortunately, he was 
not concrete and simple in his teaching, as was Jesus, and 
thus failed to win the people to himself and his doctrine. He 
was abstract in his thinking and could never come down to 
the level of his hearers. Despite all this he was intent on 
reaching all with his new conceptions. He hated nature 
worship and any form of anthropomorphism. God to him 
was "high and lifted up" above any likeness to anything in 
heaven or earth. He denounced all the old ''heavenly ones," 
calling them evil powers fit only to be destroyed and put 
away. He spared none, not even "Mithras and his troops"; 
they were all to be banished. Zoroaster's god is Mazdah, 
or Ahura Mazda, "the wise," the wisdom in question 
being the "knowledge of good and evil," or, as Professor 
James Hope Moulton puts it, "The unerring instinct that can 
distinguish between Truth and Falsehood, which for the 
prophet were the most vital aspects of good and evil.""* 
Here, then, lie close together the two great truths which 
Zoroaster would introduce, that God is one, and that he is 
holy and irreconcilably at enmity with evil. This is not far 
distant, surely, from the teachings of the Hebrew prophets. 
So much is fairly clear, but the difficulties are immediately 
forthcoming. Of the various parts of the A vesta, the sacred 
books of the Zoroastrians, the Gathas are undoubtedly the 
work of the prophet himself. They are exceedingly difficult 
to translate and to understand. From beginning to end they 
contain statements about "six highly abstract conceptions," 
known as Amesha Spenta, or "undying holy ones." They 
are to be listed as follows : 

1. Vohu Manah, Good Thought. 

2. Asha, Right, or Divine, Order. 

3. Khshathra, Dominion, or the Excellent Kingdom. 

^ Early Religious Poetry of Persia, p. 56. (Cambridge Univ. 
Press, 191 1.) 



142 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

4. Aramaiti. Piety, or Holy Character. 

5. Haurvatat, Health. 

6. Ameretat, Immortality. 

The last two are always found together in the Gathas. 

Now, what are these Amesha Spenta? They have been 
called "vassals." and "archangels," who help Ahura Mazda 
in his work of truth and righteousness. But Professor 
Moulton is so profoundly convinced that Zoroaster was a 
monotheist that he prefers another explanation. To him 
they are not outside but "within the Deity"; they "share 
adoration with the Deity," and are not very real personifi- 
cations even when they are called by their names or 
titles.' 

Again we come to a point of great interest and of real 
difficulty. Zoroastrianism is usually considered a dualistic 
system, but was the teaching of Zoroaster himself dualistic? 
Undoubtedly in Zoroaster's mind the forces of righteousness 
and the forces of evil are engaged in an irreconcilable con- 
flict, which can only be ended in the complete victory of 
what is true and noble and upright. Even more than this, 
he holds that there is a personal spirit of evil, Angra Mainyu 
(Ahriman), who in the beginning chose evil as his portion 
and who now creates evil to oppose the good which exists 
in the world. This being, Angra Mainyu, is the negative 
counterpart of Spenta ^^lainyu, which is the special name of 
Ahura Mazda as creator. So, Spenta Mainyu and Angra 
Mainyu are even called "twins, inasmuch as they do not 
exist independently, but each in relation to the other ; they 
meet in the higher unity of Ahura Mazda."* It is very easy 
to see how a thoroughgoing dualism can be attributed to 
Zoroaster, but the point which Professor ^loulton insists on 
time and again is "the uniqueness of the Creator as the central 



' See Early Religious Poetry of Persia, The Treasure of the 
Magi, and Early Zoroastrianism, all by Professor James Hope 
Moulton. 

* Moulton, Early Religious Poetry of Persia, p. 67. 



THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 143 

feature of the faith.'"* Ethically he was a dualist, as every 
man must be who is in the moral battle to win, but at the 
same time he was a monotheist, believing in Ahura Mazda, 
the sole creator and sustainer of the universe. The evidence 
is not altogether clear, but this would seem to represent the 
thought of Zoroaster better than the view that he looked 
upon the personal creator of evil in the world as equal and 
coordinate with the creator of good. 

Let us be thankful for the testimony thus given to the 
rightful place of morality in religion, such as has rarely 
been surpassed. To have coming down through the history 
of religion such unfailing emphasis on "good thoughts, good 
words, good deeds," is to raise that faith and its founder to 
an eminent position among the world's religions. And, as 
Professor Moulton has said, "It is a tribute to national 
character that all evil should be summed up in the she-devil 
'Deceit.' "" But at the same time Zoroaster's limitations are 
most evident. He was a stern prophet, unmellowed by any 
thought of God's love and mercy. These names are not 
found among the Amesha Spenta, the personified qualities of 
the god he worshiped. The final victory in the universe will 
without question be a victory of the good — this is an essen- 
tial element in all his teaching. His paradise is ethical and 
only the pure in heart may enter, but there is little hope for 
the sinner. He must cross from this world to the next over 
"The Bridge of the Separator," which was "broad for the 
righteous, narrow as a razor for the wicked, who fell off it 
into hell."^ There is no mediator or Saviour or helper. A 
man determines his own destiny and as he is wicked or good 
goes to hell or heaven when he dies. It is very simple, but 
very hopeless. Zoroastrianism is a religion of strenuous 
moral endeavor, but has no salvation for him who has fallen 



"Early Zoroastrianism, p. 122. (Williams & Norgate, London, 
1913.) 
• Early Religious Ppetry of Persia, p. 66. 
'Op. cit., p. 71, 



144 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

by the way and yet longs for the good and the true and the 
beautiful which he has failed to attain. 

Development Since Zoroaster 

We do not know what might have occurred had a suc- 
cession of prophets arisen in the spirit of the great Zoroaster, 
but there were none. We are hampered by not knowing 
the condition of the religion during the reigns of the Achae- 
menides, who ruled Persia from B. C. 558 to 331. Tradition 
asserts that the kings were confirmed Zoroastrians, but of 
this we cannot be sure. Not until the time of the Sassanids, 
who ruled from A. D. 226 to 641, did the kingdom settle 
down again and the land have rest. These centuries, the 
period of the "great kings," were glorious days for the reli- 
gion of Zoroaster, when with the revival of the faith a mis- 
sionary spirit was developed and the teachings of the prophet 
were carried to regions as far distant as China. But with 
all this it was not the pure religion of its founder which was 
heralded far and wide. It did not take long for polytheism 
to find its way back when there was no longer any Zoro- 
aster to keep burning the flame of reforming zeal. 

The changes which were introduced into the religion are 
accounted for by Professor Moulton, in large measure at 
least, by referring them to the Magi. He looks upon the 
Magi as an indigenous non-Aryan tribe who Hved in western 
Persia and who, when they came in contact with the Zoroas- 
trians, succeeded in winning a place for themselves as the 
priests of the people. Much remains to be investigated in 
order to clear up the uncertainties still adhering to the his- 
tory of the earlier periods, but we do know that the Magi 
were the priests and exercised control over the faith during 
the later centuries. They are known by their adherence to 
astrology, divination, and the practice of magic, which, by 
the way, derives its name from them, the practices of the 
Magi being designated as magic. All this was alien to the 
spirit of the master and indicates a serious declension from 



THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 145 

the high level of his teachings. "They hardened the proph- 
et's profound adumbrations of truth into a mechanical sys- 
tem of dogma, therein showing the usual skill of priests in 
preserving the letter and destroying the spirit."* 

These men carried the ethical dualism of Zoroaster back 
into their theology. Instead of continuing to place Ahura 
Mazda over the whole creation, the one supreme Lord above 
all, they made "a. systematic division of the world between 
Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu." All the angels of the 
one had counterparts, who were demonic ministers of the 
other. Even the Amesha Spenta, who had become arch- 
angels in the meantime, had their corresponding fiends in the 
realm of evil. So the god of righteousness and the god of 
evil divided the universe between them, each equally power- 
ful and each having had his part in the original creation of 
the world. It must be said, however, that even on this theory 
at the end Ahura Mazda was to be completely victorious 
over Angra Mainyu. The good was to conquer and the evil 
would be finally overthrown. Men were to choose which 
side they would take in the conflict, and so the ethical note 
was retained intact. But the keen edge of Zoroaster's moral 
insistence was dulled by the laws of purity as found in the 
Vendidad, the priestly code of the religion. The dualism 
of clean and unclean was carried to a ridiculous extreme, 
until the whole of life was dominated by ideas of ceremonial 
purity and cleanness. The moral factor was swamped un- 
der the ceremonial. The elements of fire, earth, and water 
were considered sacred, and many rules were laid down to 
preserve them holy and uncontaminated. The religious life 
was reduced in large measure to over-nice refinements and 
scrupulous care to avoid pollution. 

At two points the Magi sought to introduce practices 
which were utterly strange to the people. In one they suc- 
ceeded and in the other they failed. The method of disposal 



Op. cit., p. 78. 



146 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

of the dead among the Zoroastrians is to place the bodies 
on a framework of iron within a low circular tower and 
there allow them to be stripped of all flesh by vultures who 
await with avidity the uncovering of the bodies to begin their 
gruesome work. The purpose of this strange custom is to 
avoid the pollution of the earth and fire either by burial or 
cremation. It was adopted by the Zoroastrians and remains 
to this day one of the most marked peculiarities of their 
practice. Wherever there is a Parsi community of sufficient 
size to justify their presence these Dakhmas, or "Towers of 
Silence," are to be found, built in beautiful groves and sur- 
rounded by the vultures, ever watchful for their legitimate 
prey. The burial of the bones after they have been picked 
clean is not supposed to pollute the earth in which they find 
their resting place. The other practice which the Magi de- 
sired to introduce and failed in doing was marriage between 
the closest relatives. This was considered by the Magi as 
"a religious duty of the most extravagant sanctity."* For- 
tunately, it did not approve itself to the best sense of the 
people and although it is frequently mentioned in the Avesta, 
it is utterly repudiated by the modern Parsis. 

The statement was made that other gods besides Ahura 
Mazda were reintroduced. Zoroaster came into a land 
vi^here the great nature gods of the Aryans were worshiped. 
He sought in his reformation to banish these forever as 
unworthy of man's reverence, but upon the ascendency in 
the religion of men who had not risen to his high idealism 
back they came again and found a place in the hearts and 
worship of the people. And yet even here Ahura Mazda is 
still first among the objects of worship. And never from 
the beginning until the present has any image ever been 
made the object of worship. The symbol of the Supreme 
Deity is fire. The Zoroastrians have been called fire-wor- 
shipers, but it is quite certain that this is a com- 



• Op. cit., p. 77. 



THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 147 

plete misnomer. The fire is the visible emblem or symbol of 
divinity and is reverenced so highly as such that it is not 
to be wondered at that they have actually been called fire- 
worshipers. But this they have the right to disclaim. 

In the Yashts, or "Songs of Praise" of the later Avesta, 
poems are dedicated to a number of gods, some of whose 
names sound quite famihar: "Mithra, Anahita, Tishtrya, 
Haoma, and the Fravashis."^" Not only so, but in places 
even the sublime Ahura Mazda is found in a position lower 
than some of these divinities, and even offering them wor- 
ship. And the case is not materially helped when these old 
gods of paganism are looked upon as "angels." A name 
does not change their nature, and they remain pagan still. 
As the idea of the gods declines so does the idea of prayer 
to them. Prayer becomes the repetition of formulae which 
possess power by their mere repetition, whether the words 
are understood by the worshiper or not. The old religion 
with its pure and elevated outlook was not completely lost 
by the incoming of these alien elements, but it has been so 
encrusted over by features foreign to its original genius that 
it is with difficulty that the modern Parsi is able to disengage 
himself from the accretions and return to the conceptions 
and practices of the holy prophet he so enthusiastically 
venerates. 

The Parsis of the Present Day 

On December 10, 1916, the Parsis celebrated the twelve 
hundredth anniversary of their landing in India. The 
exact date and the detailed circumstances of the coming of 
these "Pilgrim Fathers of Zoroastrianism" may be more or 
less a legend, but what we do know is that when the con- 
quering Islamic armies swept over Persia and most of the 
inhabitants turned Mohammedan, a group of faithful men 
and women made their escape from the country and settled 
in India. Not all, however, did so. A small number who 

'"The Treasure of the Magi, p. 8y. (Oxford Univ. Press, 1917.) 



148 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

did not deny the faith remained in Persia and have retained 
their identity until the present day. Known as Gabars and 
numbering about ten thousand, this small remnant eke out 
a rather unenviable existence in Central Persia. Until the 
end of the eighteenth century this community was regarded 
by the Parsis of India as possessing a certain authority over 
them in view of their residence in the ancient seat of their 
holy faith, but even this acknowledgment is now a thing of 
the past and there is little hope of any future for these up- 
holders of the ancient traditions. 

But even the main body of Parsis in India would seem 
to be only a remnant, the memory of a departed glory. The 
contrast is striking between a proud nation whose estab- 
lished religion was Zoroastrianism and the little community 
of exiles in India jealous of their faith and guarding it care- 
fully against compromise with any other religion. The total 
number is about a hundred thousand, one half of whom 
make their home in Bombay. The others are scattered in 
small groups, only one of which exceeds five thousand souls, 
in a score of cities throughout India. Not only is the com- 
munity small but it is exceedingly clannish. Contrary to the 
theory which prevailed as late as the sixteenth century, the 
Parsis are now opposed to any extension of their faith to 
other nations or among the alien peoples by whom they are 
surrounded. It has in recent years been a subject of hot 
controversy whether the foreign wife of a Parsi might be 
admitted to the worship in the Fire-temples and be consid- 
ered one with them in the faith. The decision up to the 
present has been against even so slight a lowering of the 
bars. What is to become of such a small and exclusive com- 
pany of people is a question they are being compelled to ask 
ever more seriously. The danger of inbreeding faces them, 
and the postponement of the age of marriage, which has 
come with their contact with the west and the more strenu- 
ous conditions of modern life, bodes ill for the permanence 
of a community which has taken so exclusive an attitude. 



THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 149 

The priesthood in Zoroastrianism is very important. The 
Mobeds, as the priests of the fire-temples are called, are 
essential to the conduct of the ceremonial and the upkeep of 
the sacred fire. The order of priests is hereditary, and at 
their head in connection with each great temple is the high 
priest, or Dastur. Unfortunately, the priesthood in general 
is not worthy of the community in education and intelligence. 
There are some learned priests, but most of them are incap- 
able of the leadership the people have a right to expect. 
The very training which the neophytes must undergo is not 
calculated to fit them for understanding and deahng with the 
difficult problems of the present day. They must be able to 
repeat from memory the whole of the Yasna, the oldest and 
most important part of the Avesta, but in a language which 
they do not understand. Is there any wonder the priesthood 
as a profession has little appeal to-day for young men who 
may be in line for the office, but can feel no incentive to such 
a career ? 

The most important function they are called upon to per- 
form is the care of the fire in the temples. This is the very 
center of the cult, and most elaborate are the precautions 
taken that the purity of the flame may not be endangered. 
Only Parsis are allowed entrance into the inner precincts of 
the temple, where the urn containing the fire stands upon a 
stone pedestal. "Religious Parsis visit the Fire-temple 
almost daily, and on four days of each month, those sacred 
to Atar (3d, 9th, 17th, and 20th), there is a very large 
attendance. There is no distinction between men and women 
in their form or place of worship. Arrived at the temple, 
the worshiper washes the uncovered parts, and recites the 
Kusti prayer. Then he passes through the outer hall, goes 
barefoot through the inner hall to the threshold of the room 
where the Fire burns, and recites prayers standing. Only 
the priest is in the room itself. He receives from the wor- 
shiper sandalwood and a piece of money, and brings him 
ashes from the urn in a ladle, which he applies to his fore- 



150 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

head and eyelashes. After his prayers he retires backward 
to the place where he left his shoes, and goes home."" 

Besides the fire-temple, which is for the living, each 
Parsi community must have a Dakhma, one of the Towers 
of Silence, for the disposal of the dead. Since vultures are 
so essential to the carrying out of the ritual, it can readily 
be seen that the community must be of some size to be able 
to dispose of their dead in this fashion without taking the 
body to another and larger settlement of their fellow-reli- 
gionists. In all there are about sixty of these towers, mostly 
of course in w^estern India. The ideas of purity and im- 
purity held by the Parsis come to a climax in their ideas of 
the impurity connected with death. The ceremonial is care- 
fully planned to obviate the pollution which would otherwise 
adhere to anything connected with the last rites. The pro- 
fessional corpse-bearers are a class set apart from their 
fellows because of the contamination they are unable to avoid 
and which they cannot completely rid themselves of despite 
frequent ablutions. And so from the time of death until 
the vultures have done their work a constant watchfulness 
is maintained through a long series of ceremonials to ward 
off the dangerous influences which are now hovering so near. 
Not only so, but frequently, especially at such times as initi- 
ation into the community on the part of the young, marriage, 
and the birth of children, elaborate ceremonies, largely mag- 
ical in nature, are performed. With all the intelligence now 
to be found among the Parsis these ceremonies, many of 
them extravagant and exceedingly puerile, have not lost their 
hold. They are still bound down by a tradition from which 
many would be free. 

In addition to the handicap of small and even dwindling 
numbers the Parsi community is rent by serious disagree- 
ment in belief. There are the conservatives, who are vigor- 
ously opposed to any change and would have everything 
remain as it is now. At the other extreme are the radicals, 

" Moulton, op. cit., p. 145. 



THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 151 

who are anxious for the future and can see no hope unless 
drastic reforms are introduced. And between the two are 
all varieties of opinion both liberal and conservative. There 
is the tendency to rationalize the faith. When this has been 
done with vigor, as by Mr. H. T. Bhabha, the president of 
the Fourth Zoroastrian Conference, held in 1913, the result, 
put in his own words, is as follows : *'It is singularly free 
from dogmas, and is so simple in its tenets that it differs but 
little from Unitarianism or Rationalism."" These more rad- 
ical reformers are not adverse to the admission of converts, 
but even they want only a few. They are afraid of being 
swamped by the admission of those of another race who 
cannot share their hereditary pride and cannot be counted 
on to uphold unswervingly the ancient and distinctive tradi- 
tions of the community. The reformers also have in their 
program the use of prayers in a living language, the abolition 
of meaningless ceremonials and of prayers for the dead, and 
the mitigation of certain ceremonial restrictions placed on 
women, particularly at childbirth. One other tendency is at 
work and this in the direction of theosophy. Dabbling in 
the occult and reaching out after contacts with the spirit- 
world have affected the Parsis as similar gropings do in the 
West, in disintegrating interest in genuine religion and mag- 
nifying the importance of the physical in the attempt to 
reach the spiritual. 

But, after all, we cannot wonder that there should be a 
sense of want and need among the Parsis. Their religion 
at best lacks completeness; there is no adequate doctrine of 
salvation. A leading Parsi, Doctor Jivanji Modi, says, "A 
Parsee has to believe that for the salvation of his soul he 
has to look to nobody else, but to himself. Nobody — no 
priest, or no prophet — will intercede for him. For his salva- 
tion he has only to look to the purity of his own thoughts, 
words, and actions. . . . Think of nothing but the truth, 
speak no thing but the truth, and do nothing but what is 

"Quoted in The Treasure of the Magi, p. 174. 



i5« THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

proper, and you are saved."" A stern religion with a high 
moral code and the example of a most vigorous champion 
of righteousness in their great prophet, it has failed to pro- 
vide for mercy and sacrifice, tenderness and love, and by 
this failure has made it impossible for it to be a religion with 
an appeal to a world lying in need not only of a noble ideal 
but of grace and forgiveness. 

Suggestions for Further Study 

J. H. Breasted, Ancient Times (New York, 1916), Chap. VI. 
James Hope Moulton, The Treasure of the Magi (London, 1917). 

The best handbook on the entire subject. 
A. V. Williams Jackson, Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran 

(New York, 1901). All that is known about the prophet is 

found here. 
George Foot Moore, History of Religions, Vol. I, Chaps. XV, XVI. 



Quoted in The Treasury of the Magi, p. 205f. 



CHAPTER VI 
HINDUISM 

The Religion of the Vedas 

One of the two branches of the Aryan offshoot of the 
Indo-European peoples migrated, as we have seen, into 
Persia. The other, traveling southeastward, found the 
passes leading through the great mountain barrier and 
emerged on the plains of northern India. In all probability 
they did not come at any one time, but straggled into the 
new country in smaller or larger groups during hundreds 
of years. Some would say that they were still arriving 
about B. C. 1500, while others would place their arrival 
much earlier, even B. C. 2000 or 2500. Coming down into 
northern India, these Aryans spread out fanlike over the 
Punjab, or region Of the "five rivers," and then, as the 
years passed, slowly extended their settlements to the south 
and east, taking possession of the rich Ganges Valley as they 
advanced. A picture of these "tall, fair people" is given by 
J. N. Farquhar: "They were then soldier-farmers, equally 
used to the plow and the sword. They were constantly at 
war with the aborigines around them; and they looked 
eagerly for sunshine and rain to mature their crops and 
give them fodder for their cattle and herds. They were 
still a primitive people, living in simple villages, with but 
few of the arts of civilization, and untrammeled by the 
bonds of caste. They had no writing and no coinage. They 
ate beef and drank intoxicating drink. The tribes lived 
each under its own chieftain, and now and then quarrels 
led to war among them. The family was still in a healthy 
condition. Their women had a great deal of freedom 
throughout their lives. There was no child-marriage 

153 



154 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

among them, no seclusion in the zenana, no widow- 
buniing, and no law against the remarriage of widows. Like 
most primitive peoples, they practiced the exposure of girl 
children and old people."* 

They brought with them a religion in many features sim- 
ilar to that of the Persians when Zoroaster inaugurated his 
reformation. Our knowledge of their beliefs and practices 
is based on a collection of hymns known as the Rigveda. 
These hymns, or "praises," were composed during a long 
period and were committed to memory for use at the sac- 
rifices. There were over a thousand of them, which were 
finally written down in Sanskrit and preserved as a single 
collection. In some ways this collection is the most remark- 
able body of religious literature which has come down out 
of the far distant past. All the gods whose praises are sung 
are nature deities, divided into three groups with eleven 
gods in each group. They are the gods of the celestial 
regions, those of the earth, and those of the atmosphere 
between earth and sky. Of the gods of the high heavens 
three may be mentioned: Mitras, who as Mithras we have 
met in Persia and in the last stages of Roman paganism; 
Vishnu, who in a later day assumed an importance in Indian 
religion which he had not known in the earlier period ; and 
finally the great god Varuna. According to Barth, "Varuna 
is the god of the vast luminous heavens, viewed as embrac- 
ing all things, and as the primary source of all life and every 
blessing.'" The possibilities lying in the conception of this 
god might have raised Hinduism to a far nobler level than 
has been attained. Varuna was not only sublime in his 
majesty and power, but was the judge of men's hearts and 
the exemplar of nobility and truth and uprightness, who 
expected the same of the beings under his sway. But, most 
unfortunately, these possibilities were not realized and Hin- 



' A Primer of Hinduism, p. 21 f. (Oxford Univ. Press, 2nd edit, 
1912.) 
*The Religions of India, p. 16. (Triibner, London, 1906.) 



HINDUISM 155 

duism suffers to-day because Varuna has been virtually dis- 
carded and other gods representative of far different ideals 
fill the minds and dominate the lives of its adherents. 

There were three important gods of the earth, namely, 
Agni, Soma, and Yama. Agni is fire, that of the lightning 
and the sun as well as that we make use of every day. As 
the flame ascends and seems to be traveling toward the 
purified abode of the gods fire was early looked upon as a 
priest conveying sacrifices to the gods. Many high func- 
tions in human life and even in creation have devolved 
upon this god, but in all the various forms of service to 
which he has been assigned Agni has always remained just 
the material fire with which we are famiHar. Soma is the 
name of an Indian plant, now unknown, and the fermented 
juice which was extracted from it. It is intoxicating and 
therefore divine, thought these early Aryans. They were 
possessed of a spirit not their own when under the influ- 
ence of the Soma, and their only explanation was that it 
must come from the gods. Here is suggested to us the 
origin of our term "ardent spirits," which literally take pos- 
session of the man who has imbibed freely. But Soma also 
has a celestial reference and is supposed to flow in the invis- 
ible world as well as on the earth. The gods themselves 
attained immortality by drinking the Soma, and so will men 
when they drink the Hfe-giving potion with Yama in the 
land of the blessed. Again here, as in the case of Agni, the 
physical character of the god is never lost. Soma remains 
until the end, and in spite of the idealizing process, the juice 
of the soma plant. Yama might have lived an immortal, 
but he chose to die. He thus was the first to cross the 
dreaded flood from which none return. The dead who have 
lived nobly go to him. Not much is said about the wicked, 
who perish or continue to exist "in dark and dismal pits" 
with demons and other evil spirits. 

Of the eleven gods of the enveloping atmosphere Indra 
only need be mentioned. Of all the gods of the Rigveda 



156 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

Indra takes first place as the national god of the Aryans. 
He is the ''king of heaven," the warrior who gives victory 
to his people, and at the same time he is the giver of good 
and the author and preserver of life. Indra not only fights 
zinth the people when they are engaged in war, but fights 
for them with his faithful companions, the Maruts, the 
"bright ones," the gods of storm and lightning. Intoxicated 
with Soma, he rides among the clouds, striking his enemies 
with thunderbolts. When it is remembered that it is to the 
atmosphere the people of India must look not only for 
prosperity but for life itself, it can be seen quite readily how 
Indra, the god who defeats the enemies who would prevent 
the breaking of the monsoon with its copious rains, would 
be Hfted up and idealized until he became their great cham- 
pion and protector. 

When one reads the hymns of the Rigveda he is confused 
by the manner in which the qualities of one god are as- 
cribed to another so that the lines of demarcation between 
them become hazy and indistinct. This tendency to fuse 
and assimilate the gods and their functions was the begin- 
ning of a long process which continued until it led into the 
pantheism which is so characteristic a feature of later 
Indian thought. The Indian mind even at this early date 
was beginning to feel out after a unity in which there 
should be no distinctions,, and, though the fully developed 
theory was not completed for many centuries, the tendency 
begins to make itself evident almost from the beginning. 
One is also struck in these hymns by the ascriptions of 
praise to one and then another of these divine beings, just 
as if each god were the sole god of the universe. Many 
gods are worshiped, but each in an exclusive manner. The 
theology oscillates between polytheism and an approach 
toward monotheism. Professor Max Miiller called it Ka- 
thenotheism, the w^orship of "one god at a time." The 
worshiper seemed a bit uneasy. He had inherited many 
gods, with various functions, to provide him with requisite 



HINDUISM 157 

care and protection, but he was not satisfied. The desire 
for unity was already present, making the worship of a 
variety of gods seem incongruous. With this beginning and 
by a very natural process among so thoughtful a people as 
these Aryans the conception would change and develop 
until all the gods came to be looked upon as manifestations 
only, manifestations of a primal essence behind and in- 
clusive of them all. We have anticipated somewhat, but 
have done so in order to call attention thus early to 
the tendency which can only be understood, it is true, by 
following the development to its final issue, but which 
begins to betray itself in the earliest movements of Indian 
thought. 

The worship of the gods was largely sacrificial. Animals 
were offered in increasing numbers as the centuries passed 
until the land ran red with blood by the time Buddhism rose 
in the sixth and fifth centuries before our era. There were 
also elaborate rites connected with the offering of the soma 
and of ghi, or clarified butter. There were no temples and 
no images in the early day, the worship being conducted in 
the open air. Priests were in evidence very early, but as 
the sacrifices became more elaborate they increased their 
hold until in the end no bondage can compare with that in 
which the people of India are held by their spiritual leaders. 
The theory was very simple. Sacrifice was looked upon as 
absolutely necessary, and the efficacy of the sacrifice de- 
pended, not upon moral fitness, nor even upon the sincerity 
of the worshiper, but upon the correctness with which the 
ritual of the sacrifice was performed. This was beheved im- 
plicitly by all the people high and low. In the earliest day the 
father was the priest of his family, but as the theory of 
sacrifice developed it became increasingly difficult for him 
to find time to master the ritual on which the fortunes of 
the family depended. The priest took his place and per- 
formed the ceremonies for him. They made themselves 
experts in religion, masters of ceremony and ritual, and 



158 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

thus became indispensable to the people. Nothing could 
be done without them. They dominated life and exercised 
their sway with ever-increasing severity. These Brahmins, 
as they were called, came to occupy a unique position, wield- 
ing the mightiest power in the land. Jealous of their posi- 
tion, they separated themselves more and more from the 
other classes and gave it out that they were superior beings, 
veritable gods on earth. 

The theory of the efficacy of sacrifice was carried so far 
that sacrifice was looked upon as irresistible. Thus the 
whole system became impregnated with magic. The sacri- 
fice became more important than the being to whom it was 
offered. The carrying out of the ritual with minute exact- 
ness would bring about the desired end with little reference 
to the will of the god who was addressed. This did not 
tend to exalt the gods, but it did result in further enhancing 
the authority of the divine priesthood which could perform 
such wonders. It was even said that the gods themselves 
had attained their present position by sacrifice, and so it 
followed that it was not beyond the range of possibihty for 
mortal men now to reach the same goal. And in India 
theories do not remain mere theories, but are put into action, 
and men give themselves to all forms of religious prac- 
tices and austerities in order to attain divinity at the end 
of their self-imposed regimen. 

We have referred to the Rigveda as the earliest Hterary 
product of the Indian mind, but it was only the beginning. 
Even before the rise of Buddhism the literature had grown 
considerably. In addition to the Rigveda is the Samaveda, 
an arrangement of verses from the Rigveda for use at the 
Soma sacrifice, the Yajurveda, a double collection of prose 
selections and verses from the Rigveda for use in the ritual, 
and, finally, at a much later date, the Atharvaveda, a collec- 
tion of magical formulae. By this time the heights of the 
Rigveda had been left far behind and lower conceptions 
were filling the minds of priests and people. In addition to 



HINDUISM 159 

all these and appended to the Vedas were priestly writings 
called the Brahmanas, which purport to give the inner mean- 
ing of the sacrifices and to direct the priests in their per- 
formance, but which are an arid waste of irrational theo- 
rizing with no inspiration or uplift about them. 

The Philosophic Development 

When the Aryans came into India they possessed no 
belief in the doctrine of transmigration, yet it is one of the 
basic doctrines among Hindus to-day. Where did they get 
it? The subject is obscure, but probably the idea was sug- 
gested by their contact with the aboriginal population into 
the midst of whom they were thrown. While the Aryans 
came more and more to dominate the religious life of the 
country of their adoption, they unconsciously absorbed 
many of the ideas of the primitive Dravidians. One of 
these was probably transmigration. The theory is that 
when a man dies his soul, or his essence, leaves the dying 
body and enters the body of some animal or human being 
as it comes into the world to begin its career. And the 
process may be repeated generation after generation times 
without number. 

While the theory doubtless came to the Aryan invaders in 
a very crude form, the keen minds of the thinkers among 
them would not allow it to rest, but worked it out to its 
logical conclusion and made it a part of their growing 
philosophical system. The law which determined the opera- 
tion of transmigration was the law of Karma. Now, 
Karma means "action" or "deed," but it refers to such 
actions or deeds in one life as work out their results in the 
next life and the next and so on until their force has been 
entirely spent. According to our Karma, we are born into 
a new life well or strong, good or bad, rich or poor. It is a 
kind of retribution working itself out automatically and 
inevitably in existence after existence. There is absolutely 
no escape from the clutches of this inexorable law. All we 



i6o THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

can hope for is not to add to our Karma, so that when what 
we have inherited is finally exhausted there will be no 
more fuel to keep the fire burning. The fuel consists of 
deeds — any deeds, good or bad — which stimulate life. To 
live then — just to live, whether nobly or dishonorably, it 
makes little difference — is an evil with a most unfortunate 
entail for the future. If we might only cease from doing 
deeds, from any activity, and simply exist with no attach- 
ments to life, we would be on the way to emancipation. 
But it is exceedingly difficult and cannot even be begun 
without devoting one's whole mind to that end. The ascetic 
who gives himself to various kinds of cruel austerities and 
would thereby cut the cords of desire which bind him fast, 
to life and its joys and sorrows, is on the highway of salva- 
tion and at some time, it may be millenniums ahead, will 
have exhausted his Karma and be thus set free from the 
necessity of further transmigrations. 

While all this was being developed and was becoming the 
common property of the Aryan community in India, an- 
other and deeper movement was in progress. Certain men 
of intelligence and deep earnestness, dissatisfied with the 
current explanations and the crude materialism of the sac- 
rificial system, made the attempt to penetrate deeper into 
the meaning of life and its problems, and in the end arrived 
at astonishing conclusions. Appended to the Brahmanas 
are to be found a group of writings called Aranyakas, or 
teachings "belonging to the forest." They were written by 
men who, leaving the society of ordinary men and women, 
went off into the forest and gave themselves to meditation 
and austerities. The results of their thinking are to be 
found in the Upanishads, which are embedded in the Aran- 
yakas and are sometimes a little difficult to distinguish from 
them. These philosophical writings embody the funda- 
mental principles of Hindu thinking even down to the pres- 
ent day. 

The creed which these early philosophers evolved was very 



HINDUISM i6i 

simple. There is but one Being in all the universe ; in fact, 
this Being is the Universe. Here is real unity, and that is 
what these thinkers were trying to find. It is pantheism 
pure and simple. The gods and other spiritual beings 
were not eternal, but only the temporary manifestations of 
this one Absolute. The souls of men were "sparks from the 
central fire, drops from the ocean of divinity," to be incar- 
nated times without number, according to the law of Karma, 
but in the end to find release and drop back into the bound- 
less ocean from which they came. The only eternal, un- 
questionable fact in the universe is Brahman, the World- 
soul, and the conclusion was reached that the Atman, or 
individual human soul, was identical with it. "Myself is 
the infinite self" and "The soul of the universe, whole and 
undivided, dwells in me," are two of the many ways in which 
this identity was expressed. Probably the most used phrase 
is, "Thou art That," also "I am Brahman," and "I am He."' 
The object of life for these thinkers was to realize the 
truth of these affirmations. Salvation was to be attained 
by intuition, by a sudden flash of insight, which would drive 
away the darkness and leave the man possessed of this lib- 
erating thought. Should he achieve this insight by the 
power of his intellect after profound meditation, concentrat- 
ing his whole mind on this one thought, he was free. Aus- 
terities were of no further use; he had broken the bond 
which held him fast to the wheel of transmigration and he 
would not be born again. He was free forever ; the release 
was complete and final. 

We must look a Httle more closely at this Absolute Being, 
Brahman. Farquhar says that Brahman is "a neuter noun 
which expresses the common thought of the time, that the 
world-soul is an impersonal essence present in all things."* 
So enthusiastic were the forest thinkers over their "find" 
that they could not restrain themselves in their rapture. 

"Quoted from J. N. Farquhar, Primer of Hinduism, p. 48. 
•Op. cit., p. 48. 



i62 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

Brahman is to them everything good and desirable, the aim 
of all their longing. But when Brahman is described and 
an attempt made to state the qualities and attributes in- 
volved in their conception the result is most disappointing. 
Nothing positive can be affirmed ; it must all be in negatives. 
Of each positive characteristic the only word is, he is not 
that. It is only by accommodation that Brahman is called 
"he" at all. He is impersonal and the word "Brahman" is 
neuter, so the more appropriate term would be "it." But 
even more serious is the impossibility of thinking of Brah- 
man as holy or righteous. He is considered as a being 
far beyond the distinction between right and wrong. That 
were to lower him and bring him into the narrow circle of 
human frailty and need. But the sad fact is that any 
attempt to posit a being for whom ethical distinctions do not 
exist is really to descend to a level below that we occupy. 
Such a conception has no power to raise men to heights of 
moral endeavor beyond the natural desires of the human 
heart. This philosophical theory has crippled Hinduism 
through all the years and holds out little promise for the 
future when India needs all the moral and spiritual strength 
she can obtain for the task of national reconstruction which 
is before her. 

The philosophic development which we have been con- 
sidering was not completed for centuries after the writing 
of the Upanishads, which occurred before B. C. 500. No 
systematic presentation of any theory can be found in 
these loosely connected writings. Exactly what occurred 
during a long period we do not know, not until we come to 
the name of one of the great characters in India's religious 
history, that of Sankara, whose period of activity fell in 
the first half of the ninth century of our era. The system 
of which he was the supreme teacher is called the Vedanta, 
the "end" or "aim" of the Veda. Basing his work on the 
teachings of the Upanishads Sankara went to the utmost 
limit and set forth an unqualified monism. This had been 



HINDUISM 163 

hinted at often before, but never asserted so unwaveringly. 
He not only refused to recognize anything as real except 
Brahman; he declared that the world and all things in it 
were only maya, illusion. That we ourselves exist as dis- 
tinct individuals is only an illusion, and the thing most nec- 
essary for us is to rid ourselves of the fatal misconception 
and realize that there is nothing else in existence except the 
one absolute All and that we ourselves are that All. But 
in addition to his uncompromising monism Sankara was 
willing to allow, as a makeshift for those who could not 
rise to the "higher" truth, certain of the current doctrines 
about the gods, always maintaining that they were only 
manifestations of the great Brahman and not themselves 
eternal. As soon as one could reach the higher levels he 
would see that these, too, were illusive and could give no 
satisfaction for those who had attained. 

The system of Viedanta as taught by Sankara, with its 
attempt to deny the reality of the world altogether, was not 
accepted by all. Other religious leaders, like Ramanuja 
(about A. D. 1 100), approach more nearly a theistic position, 
acknowledging that Brahman is the sole reality, but at the 
same time holding that he has definite and positive charac- 
teristics, like intelligence and goodness, and is not utterly 
unapproachable by his children, who are real beings and not 
the mere "shadow of a dream." Not only was there this 
measure of divergence, but other philosophies arose, one 
of which in particular was utterly different from the Ve- 
danta. In the Sankhya system we have a dualism. There 
is a primary active substance, called Prakriti, and also 
many individual souls, called Purusha, which are eternal 
and distinct like the primary substance itself. Here salva- 
tion is attained by insight, as in the case of the Vedanta, 
but the releasing truth which dawns on the mind is that 
one's soul is eternally different from the active substance, 
instead of being eternally one with the world-soul as in the 
Vedanta. The system is utterly atheistic and contains less 



i64 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

of hope and help than the Vedanta to which it is so vigor- 
ously opposed. 

The Caste System 

Hinduism is the most amorphous of all religions. Almost 
anything can be said of it with the assurance that it is true, 
and at the same time almost anything which is said may be 
denied and that with good reason. Hinduism is a strange 
medley of different and even contradictory elements mixed 
together into a very irregular and uneven mass. What is it, 
then, which makes a man a Hindu? What is the standard 
of orthodoxy which may be applied to determine a man's 
standing in the Hindu community? The only correct an- 
swer is that it is neither belief nor yet the acceptance of a 
moral code which makes a man an acceptable Hindu. He 
may believe what he likes and do as he pleases and yet have 
no question raised as to his standing as a Hindu.. And yet 
Hinduism is as rigid and as exclusive as any religion in 
the world. In fact, no outsider can become a member of 
their religious community, he must be born into it, he 
must be a "birthright" Hindu or not be one at all. The clue 
to this strange anomaly is to be found in caste, the form 
of organization obtaining wherever Hinduism exists. To be 
a Hindu means to belong to one of the castes and to obey 
the caste regulations. Orthodoxy, then, in Hinduism is 
conformity to custom, petrified in a social organization. 

A caste is a group of people kept apart from other caste 
groups by regulations touching marriage, food, in some cases 
occupation, and also residence. Taking them in the reverse 
order, conformity with reference to residence, which is the 
least important, means that a Hindu shall not travel or 
reside outside India. The fact that the university centers in 
Europe and America attract so many Hindus clearly indi- 
cates that this rule rests lightly on those who feel impelled 
to seek their education abroad. Yet among the stricter fam- 
ilies a ceremony of purification is necessary on the return 



HINDUISM i6s 

from a foreign country to cleanse away the taint which has 
been incurred by travel and by association with foreigners, 
the men and women they have met in our colleges and uni- 
versities ! Without this they cannot be received back into 
the old fellowship in the family cult. But so far as the 
travel itself is concerned most enhghtened Hindus wink 
calmly at it and pay no attention to the prohibition. Occu- 
pation helps to determine caste in some cases, but this is 
not of great importance, as members of many of the castes 
are to be found widely scattered among the occupations 
and professions. 

In respect of food conformity is more significant. One 
must not eat with a man of another caste, and frequently 
among the higher castes the food he eats must be prepared 
by a servant who belongs to his own caste. But even with 
respect to this regulation many a Hindu to-day pays scant 
attention to it at times. He will eat with others on a dining 
car and at a banquet, even though he may be scrupulously 
careful when he is at home. The women are more conserv- 
ative and prevent the growth of more liberal ideas which 
the men, particularly those of intelligence, might not be 
adverse to introducing. At the present time, when India 
begins to feel the need of unity in order to build up a 
worthy national life, the bondage of caste becomes oppres- 
sive, and leading men feel the necessity of breaking away 
from the old customs and demonstrating the possibiHty of 
all Indians, Mohammedans as well as Hindus, sharing a 
common pohtical and social Hfe. Not a great deal has 
been accomplished, but this is the tendency, and the papers 
frequently report the meeting of various classes of the In- 
dian community around the common table. 

But it is at the point of marriage that caste retains its 
deathlike grip upon the social Hfe of India. Hindu parents 
are between two fires. It is a disgrace to have daughters 
who remain unmarried after their early teens, and yet hus- 
bands must be found within their own caste or subcastc. 



i66 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

This rule is absolute and unbending. A Hindu may be lax 
in respect of food and eating with other caste men, but at 
this point he is Hke adamant. He simply will not marry 
his children to outsiders and thus "break caste." This is the 
unforgivable sin in Hinduism. The problem that is sug- 
gested by this dilemma has led to customs which have been 
of untold injury to Indian life. Child marriage is an almost 
inevitable outcome of the necessity of finding desirable hus- 
bands and wives for all the boys and girls in the community. 
Thousands of marriages are consummated before children 
reach their teens, with physical and moral results which can 
only be deplorable. This custom, in a land of high mortal- 
ity, has produced thousands of little widows and widowers. 
The boy may marry again, and usually does so, but the poor 
girl — her story is the saddest of all the suffering little women 
in the world. She is held responsible for the death of her 
husband, and as a criminal her hair is shaved off and her 
dearly loved ornaments are taken away and she is dressed 
in a coarse garment and becomes the drudge of the family. 
She may not remarry, but remains until the end of her life 
a poor miserable soul — unless, of course, she be the mother 
of sons. This lifts her to a position of honor from which 
she cannot be completely displaced. The most commendable 
thing for the widow to do until comparatively recent time 
was to mount the funeral pile and be burned to death with 
the body of her husband ; and, wiUingly or unwiUingly, this 
horrible custom, called sati, or suttee, was carried out many 
thousands of times before the British government put a stop 
to it in 1829. Many of the measures of reform which are 
being urged by the government and intelligent Hindus have 
as their object the raising of the age of marriage and the 
relief of widows by allowing their remarriage. But with 
all that wise reformers may say and do the mass of the 
people still cling to the old customs, and women still con- 
tinue to be looked upon as a kind of inevitable evil. The 
day of woman's emancipation lies in the future, and the 



HINDUISM 167 

sad and discouraging fact is that all we have been discussing 
is an integral part of the religion to which they cling with 
such tenacity. It is embedded in their sacred literature and 
has been enunciated by their great religious leaders. 

No theory of the origin of caste is completely satisfactory. 
We do not know the exact number of castes and subcastes. 
We may get some clues to help us to understand the mean- 
ing of the institution. The word for caste in Sanskrit, varna, 
originally meant "color." This would indicate that the 
Aryan as he came into India from the north was origi- 
nally fair-skinned in contrast to the dark Dravidian. In 
their endeavor to preserve the purity of their blood and 
the fairness of their skin they hedged themselves around 
with restrictions touching their relations with the aborigines. 
The earhest division we have on record separates into dis- 
tinct groups the priests (Brahmins), the warriors (Kshat- 
triyas), the agriculturalists (Vaisyas), and the menial la- 
borers (Sudras). The three mentioned first constitute the 
"twice-born" people, those who had the right to be initiated 
or be born again into the religious community. The Sudras, 
who are supposed to have been largely of Dravidian blood, 
were outsiders so far as the ceremonial and the worship of 
the "twice-born" was concerned. According to the theory 
announced in the Institutes of Manu, the ancient book of 
laws and customs, the Brahmins, Kshattriyas, and Vaisyas 
were born from the mouth, the arms, and the thighs re- 
spectively of the Supreme Soul of the Universe, while the 
poor Sudra proceeded from the feet and was looked upon 
as the menial, doing his work at the bidding of the three 
other orders. 

But while no one has been able to give an acceptable ex- 
planation of caste, the most evident fact in the whole system 
is the preeminence of the Brahmin priest. He is the key 
and dominates the system. All take their cue from him. He 
looks upon himself as inherently superior to all the others. 
Was he not created different and has he not demonstrated 



i68 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

that he is not to be classified with the common run of men? 
The caste system is his way of preserving his position invio- 
late, and he clings to it with the most serious concern. At 
many points he has deserved well of the people. He is right- 
fully recognized as the gifted leader in the higher life of the 
community. But on the other hand having little or no sym- 
pathy with those who occupy a subordinate position and 
filled with unfathomable pride, the Brahmin lords it over the 
consciences and wills of men and exercises a tyranny un- 
surpassed anywhere in the world. 

Some good things may be said of caste. It engenders a 
certain solidarity which is of great value in the precarious 
conditions in which most of the people of India live. In 
times of distress caste acts as a labor union or a trade guild 
or as a relief association in giving assistance to those who 
otherwise would have no recourse. There is a mutual help- 
fulness exercised which is good and beneficial. But the 
count against the system as a whole far outweighs any good 
which may be claimed for it. It is fundamentally divisive 
and stands as a strong bar against the unity which the for- 
ward looking Hindu knows must be achieved before India 
can become a strong nation ready and worthy to take its 
place among the nations of the world. Even deeper than 
this, however, caste kills all sense of brotherhood. To a 
Hindu his "brother" is a member of his caste and no one 
else. He is taught to despise and look down upon the 
lower castes as inferior, by contact with whom he must not 
soil his hands. And when we come to the fifty millions of 
out-castes, or "untouchables," we reach a depth of human 
misery and degradation almost unbelievable. Their touch is 
polluting and their very shadow falling on the food prepared 
for a high-caste man renders it unfit for use. Centuries of 
such disdain and abuse have created a race of cringing 
creatures who, scorned by their own proud superiors, have 
lost all the self-respect they might have developed and are 
to-day among the most pitiable people in the world. They 



HINDUISM 169 

constitute one of the greatest challenges to social and reli- 
gious service to be found anywhere. And yet despite their 
name, out-castes, they are a part of a religio-social system 
which is responsible for their present condition. 

Hinduism Since the Rise of Buddhism 

During the sixth century before our era Buddhism arose 
in northern India. As a result of the example and teachings 
of Gautama Buddha the whole complexion of things reh- 
gious was greatly changed throughout the length and breadth 
of the land. We may not at this time trace the rise and 
development of the new doctrine and the new discipHne 
which affected so profoundly the life of the Indian peoples ; 
that will be done in the following chapter. All that is needed 
here is to state that Hinduism was greatly modified during 
the centuries when Buddhism was in the ascendency. The 
period is very obscure historically, and only occasionally is 
light shed on the course of the religious development, and 
then it is the condition of Buddhism which is illumined and 
not Hinduism. Buddhism finally disappeared with the ar- 
rival of the Mohammedan on the scene of Indian history 
about the year A. D. 1000. But long before this decay had 
set in and Buddhism was losing its hold. It is exceedingly 
doubtful whether its teachings were ever so widely and so 
deeply accepted that the tenure of Hinduism was really 
imperiled. But what is true is that as Buddhism waned 
Hinduism again came to its own, and in the end established 
its supremacy over the land, a supremacy which has been 
challenged only by Islam, an aUen religion which has settled 
itself in the land and won millions of the native peoples. 

The Hinduism which raised its head again after centuries 
of strong Buddhistic influence was not the same. The caste 
system remained intact and even developed, though it was 
not encouraged, to say the least, by the Buddha and his fol- 
lowers. It was too deeply ingrained and too fundamentally 
in line with Hindu instincts to be eliminated by the slight 



170 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

opposition offered by Buddhism. The sacrificial system was 
more seriously modified, but here the theory remained the 
same ; only the form of the sacrifice was changed. Bloody i 
sacrifices almost ceased to be offered and their place was 
taken in large part by cereals and flowers. We shall have 
occasion to note one of the exceptions to this rule, but the 
remarkable change is not to be minified by the relatively 
few instances of animal sacrifice which continued to exist. 
And, finally, the Hinduism which emerged after the partial 
eclipse of so many centuries presents a very different or- 
ganization of the pantheon, and even worships a different 
set of gods. The same names occur, but gods who were 
once prominent have given place to others who held a sub- 
ordinate position or to those whose names do not even 
occur in the ancient records. 

Back in the period of the Gupta dynasty, A. D. 320-650, a 
movement was on foot to look upon Brahma, Vishnu, and 
Siva as the threefold manifestation of the Supreme, the 
Absolute Brahman we have met before." This triad, or 
Hindu Trimurti, has never entered deeply into the thinking 
of the people, though it is frequently mentioned in the reli- 
gious literature, and is at times represented in sculpture in 
the form of a triple head on one pair of shoulders. Brahma, 
the first member of this trio, is looked upon as the creator, 
the more or less personal source of the universe and the life 
which it contains. He has no popular following, only one 
or two temples in all India being devoted to his worship. 
But the fact that he is looked upon as a personal creator 
calls attention to the theistic tendency which has expressed 
itself in various forms throughout the course of Hindu 



^ For convenience, and in accordance with The Century Dictionary, 
a difference in spelling has been introduced to distinguish the three 
meanings of the word frequently given as "Brahman." This spelling 
Brahman designates the neuter, impersonal All, the philosophical 
Absolute. Brahma stands for the personal creator, also called 
Prajapati, one of the emanations of the Supreme Brahman. Brah- 
7nin, which springs from the same idea and root, is used of the 
priests and the priestly caste. 



HINDUISM 171 

religious history, in spite of the popular polytheism which 
is to be found at every turn and the deadening pantheism 
which has so completely captured the intelligence of the 
country. 

The story of Vishnu and Siva is very different. Their 
worship constitutes the sectarianism of modern Hinduism, 
the people being roughly divided between the worshipers 
of Vishnu and the worshipers of Siva. Vishnu was one of 
the celestial gods in the Rigveda and was associated with 
Indra, with whom, however, he could not compare in im- 
portance. During the centuries Vishnu increased in dignity 
and greatness and seemed to take to himself some of the 
qualities of the great Indra himself, until in the end he 
easily overtopped the national god of the Aryans of a 
bygone age. The most marked characteristic of the worship 
of Vishnu is that he is not worshiped in his own person, but 
in that of one or another of his manifestations, or incarna- 
tions, avatars, in Sanskrit. Through these incarnations 
the worship of Vishnu absorbed many stray beliefs, even the 
Buddha being acknowledged as one of the avatars. Accord- 
ing to Barth, "An Avatara ... is the presence, at once mystic 
and real, of the supreme being in a human individual, who is 
both truly god and truly man."" Vishnu himself was Hfted 
higher and higher until he was finally declared to be one 
with the Universal Spirit, the great Preserver, and as such 
almost fills the place of the sole god of the Universe. Hindu 
thought thus fluctuates between what seem to us to be irrec- 
oncilable extremes, polytheistic, theistic, and pantheistic, 
with comparatively little difficulty. 

The most prominent of the incarnations of this great god 
are Rama and Krishna, heroes of the great epic poems, the 
"Ramayana" and the "Mahabarata," but of the two Krishna 
is incomparably the greater. He is probably worshiped by 
more people than any other god in India. Krishna is an 
incarnation with a very striking history. How much of it 

'The Religions of India, p. 170. 



172 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

is legendary and how much sober fact, if he ever lived at 
all, it is exceedingly difficult to say. He is, like Rama, a 
great hero, "an exterminator of monsters, a victorious war- 
rior/' but unfortunately his record is not admirable. As 
given in the Puranas he is said to have had sixteen thousand 
wives and a hundred and eighty thousand children, many of 
his days being spent in an impure round of gambols with 
the shepherd maidens. Spiritualize these accounts as far as 
one may, the dangerous journey through such mire to reach 
the heights beyond is sure to leave its stain deep on the soul 
of even the purest-minded reader. It is a sad plight in 
which popular Hinduism finds itself with its most exalted 
incarnation. If the great God above is like that, there is 
little hope of raising the people to a high level of honor 
and purity. 

In connection with the worship of Vishnu arose a new 
doctrine, that of Bhakti, or "devotion," which is much like 
the Christian idea of faith and trust. It is directed by the 
worshiper toward one or another of these incarnations and 
thus provides a point of contact with the typical attitude of 
Christianity, that of trust in the "incarnate God." It is to 
be noted that the idea of Bhakti has spread widely over 
India and is directed to-day to many gods outside the bounds 
of Vishnu worship. The Vaishnavas, as the worshipers of 
Vishnu are called, are found principally in the north of 
India. The actual worship is performed before an image 
of the god or incarnation and consists of prayers and offer- 
ings. The sacrifice of animals has entirely disappeared and 
use is made of grain and fruit and flowers and milk. 

The worshipers of Siva, or Saivites are found principally 
in the South. In strong contrast with Vishnu, the Preserver, 
Siva is known as the Destroyer and represents the dark, 
cruel aspects of life. He also represents the powers of re- 
production and is always symbolized in his temples by the 
Linga, or human phallus, instead of by an image. This 
idea is strongly emphasized in Siva worship, Nandi the bull 



HINDUISM 173. 

being represented as an attendant of the god, a striking ex- 
ample of powerful passion and generative power. "Yet in 
South India there are daily sung to Siva hymns that for 
warmth of feeling have not often been excelled. . . . The 
god seems so unlovable, yet the Saivite saints are intoxi- 
cated with love for him, and call him Grace itself.'" With 
all his other attributes he becomes to them all that any of 
the other gods stand for, and even ravishes their gaze as 
they see in him the god of love. Both the philosopher and 
the peasant see in Siva the paragon of all excellence, for one 
the basis of an all-embracing world- view and for the other 
the friendly god who will be with him in trouble. 

Unlike Vishnu, Siva has no incarnations, but he is not 
alone in the world of gods. He has his consorts, or wives, 
and is very frequently worshiped in their persons rather 
than in his own. Among these wives are Devi, "the god- 
dess," Durga, "the inaccessible," Karala, "the horrible one," 
and Kali, "the black one." This terrible nest of harpies 
accentuates the tragic feature of Siva worship, and illus- 
trates to what lengths these poor people, on whom the 
struggle of life has laid its heavy hand, are compelled to go 
to find solace and relief. Kali, to take but one example, is the 
goddess who is depicted as the cruel woman who with devil- 
ish glee dances on the body of her husband, whose head she 
has just cut off and holds in her hand. She can only be sat- 
isfied with blood, and at her temples goats and calves are 
killed in order to spatter her protruding tongue with the 
bloody sacrifice. And yet women all over India cry out to 
Mother Kali as their only hope in distress and suffering. 
Closely connected with the worship of Siva is that of 
Ganesa, his son, the elephant-headed god of wisdom, whose 
unique images are to be seen in all part of the country. The 
Saivites are numbered by the million, and by their devotion 
and earnestness attest the inalienable religiousness of the 
Indian people, who cry out after God and must find him, 

^ Sydney Cave, Redemption Hindu and Christian, p. 1241. 



174 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

even if in the grotesque and horrible forms in which Siva 
and his company are represented. 

Besides these main forms of religious hfe India has many 
others. When we are told by Monier-Williams that ninety 
per cent of all the people of India are demon-worshipers, we 
ask how that can be when the people have been roughly 
divided between the two great sects. The fact is, the lines 
are loosely drawn and are stepped over with ease. Millions 
who may at times worship at the shrines of Krishna or 
Siva arc also devotees of lesser gods and village divinities, 
who are little better than malignant demons. They see no 
incongruity in so doing. They are in want and are fearful 
as they look into the future — why should they not have 
access to any and all gods who may possibly avert the dan- 
gers which beset them ? And so the worship extends out to 
include the worship of heroes and saints, demons and spirits, 
tutelary and village deities, the family ancestors, and even 
animals and plants and stones and other inanimate objects. 
There is no end to the list of sacred objects held in reverence 
and worshiped by the people. The cow is holy, and to be 
treated with reverence. Even monkeys are sacred and invi- 
olable, with temples erected in their honor, in whose courts 
troops of the chattering fortunates are fed and treated like 
spoiled children. India has gone mad on religion and finds 
divinity everywhere. All the way from the lofty conception 
of the Supreme Creator down to the depths, where, in Sak- 
tism, the female principle, or Sakti, is worshiped with rites 
which at times descend to the lowest level of vileness, India 
has run the gamut of religious experience and doctrine. This 
god-intoxicated land is not to be restrained in her long 
quest for a satisfying conception of God and for an experi- 
ence which will bring them into vital touch with him. 

Modern Reform Movements 

Great changes are taking place in India, but with all that 
every form of belief and every practice which has been men- 



HINDUISM 175 

tioned obtains and is proclaimed with great earnestness. It 
would seem that India is able to learn much and add it to her 
religious life, but that she finds it exceedingly difficult to let 
go time-honored forms and institutions even though they are 
clearly outworn. As Mr. Farquhar points out, this conserva- 
tism is due to the family system, founded on ancestor wor- 
ship, the caste system, which is the dominant force in the 
life of the Hindu, and the religious system, which is so 
varied and multiform that a man may find just about what 
he wants if he searches for it.' But with all this India has 
come into contact with the West and cannot remain the 
same. Western education and ideas are eating into the 
fabric of Indian culture and great changes are impending. 
For years to come the customary restraints will continue to 
hold men bound so far as their outward conformity and for- 
mal acquiescence are concerned, but inwardly the pervasive 
influence of new ideas is making impossible a hearty accept- 
ance of the old beliefs. Educated men simply cannot believe 
in polytheism. They are becoming too well informed to be 
able to assert the divine origin of caste and the unnatural 
distinctions which it involves. Somehow they cannot enter 
sincerely into the ancestral rites which have played so im- 
portant a part in the family life. 

The growing national spirit is making a profound diflfer- 
ence in the whole outlook of the leading men. They see the 
possibility of the development of Indian nationality, which 
was scarcely dreamed of a generation ago. Not that India 
has not chafed for decades under the rule of the British, 
but that until very recent years this has merely taken the 
form of irritation because of foreign domination without 
any inteUigent plan for a better, united India governed by 
her own people. Had the hand of Britain been lifted 
at any time in the past, India would have been plunged into 
civil war, Mohammedan against Hindu and even one section 



* Primer of Hinduism, chap. xvii. 



176 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

of the Hindu community against another. There was no 
soHdarity, no sense of unity, no possibility of a real national- 
ity. Even now the movement is so young and immature that 
grave danger would be faced should Britain retire. What 
the future holds out we do not know, but of one thing we 
may be sure : India has caught the vision of nationality, of a 
unified life, of the development of a distinctive civilization, 
and is determined to bend all her energies and to make any 
sacrifices necessary to accomplish this end. The effect of 
this on religion will be profound. Whatever stands in the 
way of the desired aim will be laid aside. The ignorance of 
the mass of the people will make the process a long one, but 
the steady increase of education and the determined attitude 
of the entire leadership of the country point to the day of 
achievement. The religious exclusiveness of both Islam and 
Hinduism, the divisiveness of caste, the deadening influence 
of polytheism — all are looked upon as standing in the way of 
any real progress and must therefore give way to the new 
spirit. 

What has happened in view of these contacts with the 
West and all that they have involved ? One may say, in gen- 
eral, that while the influence of the West has been recog- 
nized, the attempt has been made to accommodate the old 
beliefs to the newer views and thus fit them for the new 
age. The national appeal is strong. The pride of the Indian 
has been touched. Led by such men as Rabindranath 
Tagore, he believes that India already possesses all that is 
necessar}- to satisfy her religious needs without going to the 
despised, practical, materialistic West for instruction in 
religion. But even the most ardent nationalist feels the influ- 
ence of the new day and knows he must accommodate him- 
self to the new situation, or be lost. Even those who have the 
hardihood to declare that Hinduism, taken just as it is, is 
sufficient to meet all the needs of the land, have enlarged 
their horizon and attempt to show how their religion can 
fulfill the aspirations of all people everywhere. One of the 



HINDUISM 177 

most interesting of all these was Rama-Krishna Parama- 
hamsa, an ascetic, who lived in a temple near Calcutta. "He 
was ready to accept and to practice any aspect of Hinduism, 
and he imagined himself now a Christian, now a Mohamme- 
dan/" His greatest disciple was the Swami Vivekananda, 
who appeared at the Chicago Parhament of Religions, in 
1893, and lectured to entranced audiences in various parts of 
America. Everything in Hinduism was beautiful and noble 
and needed only the touch of an idealizing interpretation to 
appear as the climax of the world's religious development. 
This is the attitude of Mrs. Annie Besant, who has stopped 
at nothing in her acceptance of Hinduism, but sees every 
feature as evidence of the essential divinity which adheres 
to the whole system. 

The most advanced of all the groups which realize the situ- 
ation and are seeking to bring religion into line with the 
new light from the West is the Brahmo Samaj. This Samaj, 
or "church," has had an honorable history since the day of 
its founding in 1828. A very remarkable man. Ram Mohan 
Ray (1772-1833), highly educated and well versed in the 
literature of Buddhism and Christianity as well as of Hin- 
duism, turned against the polytheism, the idolatry, the social 
abuses, and the moral blemishes of the faith in which he had 
been brought up and founded a "Theistic Church." He had 
few disciples and in all its history the society has had but 
few members, not over five thousand at any time. Even 
this small number has been seriously divided and has been 
unable to present a united front against the social and reli- 
gious abuses which it condemns. All hold to an unqualified 
monotheism and a purely spiritual worship. They are social 
reformers, opposing caste, child-marriage, and the enforced 
celibacy of widows, but at this point there is a division of 
sentiment between the progressives and conservatives. 
Caste feeling is too strong to be easily overcome, and one 



•Op. cit, p. 157. 



178 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

wing — the less important let it be said — were unwilling thus 
to cut themselves off from the Hindu community. The 
"Progressive Brahmo Samaj," led by the gifted though er- 
ratic Keshab Chandra Sen (1838-1884), threw itself into 
the work of reform with zeal. Keshab was a deeply spirit- 
ual man and read much in the literature of Christianity. He 
held Christ in the highest honor and some were even opti- 
mistic enough to look forward to his conversion to Christian- 
ity. He not only had no intention of taking this step, but in 
the end lost his hold on his own followers by claiming almost 
divine honors as a special channel of revelation. The Samaj 
still lives and through its numerous publications promotes 
the reforms for which it has stood and witnesses to its 
belief in the one supreme God who may be approached only 
in spiritual worship. 

Of a very different sort is the Arya Samaj. Founded in 
1875 ^y Dayananda Sarasvati, whose watchword was "Back 
to the Vedas," and who believed India could only be regen- 
erated by a return to the ancient faith, this society has grown 
in numbers until in 191 1 the census gives the membership as 
almost a quarter of a million. Opposed to idolatry and 
with the desire to promote the worship of one God, the 
Samaj has stood for certain needed reforms, but caste has 
not been successfully opposed, and the belief in transmigra- 
tion and Karma nullifies what might otherwise be a worthy 
advocacy of monotheism. Violently opposed to Christianity 
and lending itself to the nationalistic agitation, the Arya 
Samaj tends to become as much a political as a religious 
movement. Its reforms do not go deep enough to promise 
anything commensurate with the need, and its failure to 
strike at the root of the religious needs of the country gives 
httle hope that India's regeneration will be furthered by 
this agency. 

According to Mr. Farquhar's analysis there is on one hand 
a steady advance of the old faiths and an attempt to rein- 
terpret them to meet the new situation, and at the same time 



HINDUISM 179 

"a continuous and steadily increasing inner decay.'"^ The 
direction which these movements have taken has been deter- 
mined by the presence of Christianity in the country. With 
comparatively few who as yet have abandoned their old 
beliefs and become followers of Jesus Christ the tendency 
is toward an amalgam of what is native to India and what is 
brought in from the outside. But such combinations fail at 
the point of appeal. They are clumsily put together and are 
neither one thing nor the other. India will remain religious 
— that cannot be doubted. Her great problem is to discover, 
as she awakens in a new, strange world, what her needs are 
and where she must go for satisfaction. Already the proc- 
ess has begun, and the results up to the present hour are not 
favorable to the old religious formulas, and as she more com- 
pletely comes to herself the query arises whether she will not 
— much sooner than many now think possible — realize that in 
the person of Jesus Christ all her aspirations and longings 
may find complete fulfillment. 

Suggestions for Further Study 

J. N. Farquhar, A Primer of Hinduism (London, second edit., 1912). 
J. N. Farquhar, Modern Religious Movements in India (New York, 

1915). 
A. Barth, The Religions of India (London, fourth edit., 1906). One 

of the best of the older books. 
Monier Monier- Williams, Indian Wisdom (London, fourth edit., 

1893). History of the religious literature, with numerous examples 

from the writings. 
James Bissett Pratt, India and Its Faiths (Boston, 1915). The rec- 
ord of a traveler with a mind trained to interpret religious belief 

and practice. 
George Foot Moore, History of Religions, Vol. I, Chaps. XI, 

XIII, XIV. 



'"Modern Religious Movements in India, p. 431. (Macmillan, 
New York, 191 5.) 



I 



CHAPTER VII 
BUDDHISM 

Gautama the Buddha 

About the middle of the sixth century before Christ a 
little boy was born in north India who was destined to influ- 
ence the thought of Asia more than any other down to our 
own time. The Aryan invaders had for centuries been ad- 
vancing down the Ganges Valley and were now to be found 
presenting a broad front along the western confines of what 
we now know as the province of Bengal. There they had 
settled down in little kingdoms not altogether friendly with 
each other. Local chieftains wielded sway over limited terri- 
tories and in some cases were organized into federations or 
oligarchies, called republics. Now, Gautama the Buddha 
was. the son of one of these petty chieftains. Within recent 
ycars'the place of his birth has been identified with certainty. 
At Kapilavastu, about a hundred and thirty miles north of 
the modern city of Benares, just within the borders of the 
native state of Nepal, a stone tablet was discovered in 1896 
which marks the birthplace of India's greatest son. He was 
given the name of Siddhartha, but is generally known as 
Gautama, the name of the family or clan to which he be- 
longed. The title Buddha, or "enlightened one," is applied 
to many others, but it is Gautama the Buddha who was with- 
out doubt a historical character and founded the system to 
which he gave the name. 

Many are the stories told of his birth and early years, 
which are so fabulous that it is with difficulty we are able 
to extract the modicum of truth they contain. We know 
little of the life of young Siddhartha until he was about 
thirty years of age. We may well believe the tradition that 

180 



BUDDHISM iSi 

he excelled in manly sports. His endurance and the attain- 
ment of a hale and hearty old age attest a strong constitu- 
tion and a firm foundation laid in youth for a strenuous and 
long life. What we are quite certain of is that he was 
married and had one son, Rahula, of whom he was exceed- 
ingly fond. A persistent tradition repeated many times over 
in Buddhist literature indicates that he was of the medita- 
tive and thoughtful type and possessed a nature deeply 
touched by the pain and sorrow of life. We are told that 
he was strangely moved by the sight of an old decrepit man, 
a man suffering from an offensive disease, a putrefying 
corpse, and finally a wandering monk who had realized the 
vanity of life and had forsaken it forever to search for the 
deeper satisfactions in religion and philosophy. We can only 
guess at the feelings which were surging in the breast of 
Gautama. What we do know is that about the age of thirty 
he left house and home never to return to the old relation- 
ships again. It has been called the "great renunciation." 
He turned away from wife and child, from his father and 
the succession to the chieftainship, from all that the future 
had to offer of honor and success — all these he rejected to 
answer the summons of an inner craving which was not 
satisfied and which could not be hushed. He made the break 
just when he did because he found his little son was en- 
twining himself so firmly about his heart that if he waited 
any longer it would be impossible to tear himself away. 

In thus abandoning his home and becoming a penniless 
wanderer Gautama took the step which many before and 
since his day in India have taken. Dissatisfied with life 
and yet longing for satisfaction, reaching out after peace 
and not knowing where to find it, India has always had its 
holy men, who travel from place to place or else seek some 
lonely spot in the jungle or on a mountainside and give 
themselves to contemplation and ascetic practices. He was 
merely doing what countless others have done in the same 
quest. We know comparatively Uttle about the next five or 



i82 THE RELIGIONS OE MANKIND 

six years. There is good evidence that he went to one reli- 
gious teacher after another, but what they taught and what 
he thought of their theories we do not know. It seems clear 
that they could not satisfy the deep craving in the heart of 
this earnest seeker. The opposition which he showed in 
later years to the current philosophies would seem to have 
begun at the time when they failed to give an adequate 
answer to his questions. Gautama was by no means alone 
in his search. Many others in India at that time were seek- 
ing new answers to their religious questioning. The name of 
one other, a contemporary of Gautama, has come down to us, 
Mahavira, the founder of the religion of the Jains, which 
numbers about a million and a quarter adherents at the 
present time in India. He, too, forged a new behef out 
of his thought and experiences and added another to the 
number of cults in this deeply religious land. Based on the 
principle of a fundamental dualism in life, the Jains have 
given themselves to a severe asceticism and have made the 
prohibition of killing any single living thing, large or small, 
a cardinal doctrine. While Buddhism has ceased to exist 
in the land of its birth, Jainism still thrives, though it is 
of slight importance in comparison with the surrounding 
Hinduism. 

We left Gautama with "the teachers, both hearing them, 
and asking them questions." Either after or during this 
period he gave himself to a strict regimen. By abstinence 
and other ascetic practices he reduced himself to a skeleton. 
A small company of disciples gathered around him in admi- 
ration of his fortitude and perseverance. They were not 
able to follow him in the utter abandon of his efforts to 
extort the peace he craved by hardships and deprivations. 
He carried his exertions to the breaking point and nature 
rebelled. He finally fell over in a swoon. His disciples 
thought he had died and wondered at the pluck and resolu- 
tion they had failed to attain. But he revived, much to 
their surprise. Then an astonishing thing takes place. 



BUDDHISM 183 

Gautama calmly declares to his followers that mortification 
had failed to bring the peace he craved and that he would 
give it up. His erstwhile disciples cannot understand a 
statement so unorthodox, and forthwith take their leave 
and go to Benares with contempt in their hearts for one 
who has turned away from so time-honored a practice as 
self-abnegation and asceticism. And just here the origi- 
nality of Gautama begins to show itself. Up to this time 
he had been a typical Hindu, but now he began to branch 
off and follow a direction of his own. Asceticism had 
failed to satisfy, so he turned away from it decisively. 
From this time he became an advocate of the ''middle way." 
His experience had led him to the conclusion that neither 
luxury on one side nor asceticism on the other could satisfy 
the inner craving he felt. The only thing to do then, so far 
as every-day life was concerned, was to travel the ''middle 
way," not giving way to softness and luxury on one side, 
nor undergoing the hardships of self-inflicted asceticism on 
the other. He set men the example of simple living with 
only a few regulations which were calculated to keep men 
from the evils and sins which would make the development 
of character impossible. It was good, wholesome living he 
inculcated — wholesome in all particulars save one. Gautama 
had separated himself from his home and his wife, and he 
could not see that traveling the "middle way" ought to 
mean the avoidance of unbridled license on one hand and 
celibacy on the other. To him no advance could possibly 
be made in character, no progress could be made toward 
peace and satisfaction so long as man lived in company with 
woman. He must turn away from home and wife and chil- 
dren if he were to take up seriously the task of quieting the 
craving within and winning the peace he desired. It was a 
serious weakness. To make woman a stumbling-block to 
man in the journey toward his heart's desire is to lower her 
condition and at the same time to keep man down to a level 
at which the finest flowers of individual and social life can 



i84 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

never grow. Gautama did not see this, and his system has 
suffered to our own day from this defect. 

But all that he had attained was negative. He had learned 
that the inner rest he was craving was not to be had by 
living a life of ease or by asceticism. The process of elim- 
ination had been at work, but nothing positive had been 
gained. The temptation came to give up the pursuit, go 
back to his home, and take up his Hfe where he had left it 
on the night when he suddenly took his flight. Would this 
not be the best course out of the confusion in which his 
failure had left him? But no, that would not have been 
Gautama the Buddha. He found himself in a dreadful 
moral and mental struggle, which is described most realisti- 
cally in Buddhist literature. The forces of Mara, the enemy 
of all that is good, charged hke legions of armed demons 
from the front and then from the rear, seeking to break 
down his determined resistance, but through it all he sat 
unmoved, with purpose unchanged and his desire un- 
quenched. At last, under the shade of the famous Bo-tree, 
where he had remained all the day fighting his battle for 
spiritual emancipation, as the evening came on and the 
quiet shadows crept in around him, the enlightenment came 
and he was free. Thus did Gautama become the Buddha, 
the "enlightened." His last battle with his lower nature had 
been won, his doubts were dissolved, and the peace whose 
elusive quest he had been following so long swept over his 
soul, never again to be absent from his experience. He 
had grasped the meaning of the world's sorrow and could 
cure it. 

Such a memorable experience and such a stupendous 
claim demand explanation. What was the disease which 
had doomed men and women to sorrow and despair? Surely 
the man who could not only give the correct diagnosis but 
also offer the cure was a benefactor the whole world was 
seeking. Without doubt the strivings through which he 
had been passing uninterruptedly for so many years and 



BUDDHISM 185 

the attempts he had made from every conceivable angle to 
find the way out of his mental anguish account in large 
measure for the final conclusion the Buddha reached, but 
for him the whole matter was the result of a spiritual illu- 
mination or mental intuition which burst upon him like a 
light flowing in from the heavens. For many weary years 
he had lived in the presence of his own inner discontent 
and the sorrow of the world around him. What was the 
cause of this sorrow, and inner pain? Nothing less than 
desire, the lust of gold and fame and pleasure, all that 
made men cling to the things of life and sense. He had 
laid his finger on the canker that was eating the life out of 
his fellowmen. How much of all this he had thought out 
before the day of concentration under the Bo-tree it is 
impossible to say. The final element in his conclusion was 
that peace and praise could only come by the suppression of 
desire, the conquest of the lower nature by the power of 
the human mind brought to bear on this root of human 
misery. 

The temptation which came to him at once was to become 

a solitary recluse, spending his years in quiet enjoyment of 

his newly found experience and thinking through all its 

implications. But again this would not have been Gautama 

the Buddha. Throughout his life benevolence and pity 

■ toward his fellow creatures was a powerful motive and 

' determined his action. He deliberately made up his mind 

to devote his time to the carrying of his message to men 

' as far as his journeys might lead him. He acted upon 

his determination and proceeded at once to Benares, where 

he found and won back the disciples who had so recently 

left him. They felt the power of his conviction and the 

P truth he was uttering. In this way until the end of his 

^ long life he continued to win converts until they could be 

^ counted by the hundreds and thousands. His love for men 

^' and his desire to lift from them the burden of sorrow and 

f misery they were carrying make the Buddha one of the 



icS6 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

workr.s great altruists. He never wearied of telling his 
message and rejoiced as one after another men and women 
came to him, were convinced, and went away with a new 
life open before them. He had determined "To set roll- 
ing the royal chariot-wheel of a universal empire of truth 
and righteousness," and he never lost an opportunity to 
make a convert and set another soul free from the fetters 
of desire. 

The chronology of the life of the Buddha is uncertain. 
The period from the time when he abandoned his home 
until his emancipation was probably about five years, 
roughly from the age of thirty to thirty-five. He died at 
about the age of eighty, thus spending forty-five years in 
declaring his doctrine up and down northern India. During 
the rainy season, called the "was," he remained in one 
place teaching his disciples and preaching to the people who 
came to him, but as soon as the dry season had come he was 
off again on his long journeys, accompanied by a group of 
his disciples. There were no decisive crises in his life after 
the period of the Bo-tree experience, and the story is a 
somewhat disconnected narrative of what he said and did 
in the course of the years. He met many people, men and 
women of all ranks and classes of society, and most inter- 
esting are the accounts of his replies and admonitions. He 
was dignified yet sympathetic, firm yet kindly, deaHng in 
each case with insight and sending each one away with an 
appropriate and convincing word. No wonder he came to 
be idolized by his followers. They looked on him as one 
who could meet every emergency, as one who was not to 
be baffled by any carping or even sincere questioner. In 
the course of his tours he came to his old home at Kapila- 
vastu, and there met his wife and his son. He went back 
several times. They may have thought to receive him back 
to the old relationships, but that was not to be. They were 
little more to him, that is, so far as his actions showed, than 
fellowbeings who stood in need of his message. His words 



BUDDHISM 187 

fell on good ground in each case, and both wife and son 
became members of the two orders he had instituted, one 
for men and the other for women. They became penniless 
wanderers like the Buddha himself, looking for their daily- 
bread at the hand of the kindly laity who considered it 
meritorious to feed and otherwise provide for these holy 
men and women. 

So the Buddha hved out his days, never ceasing this 
round of teaching from place to place. At last the end 
came as a result, so it is said by Professor R. T. Rhys 
Davids, of an attack of indigestion caused by eating a meal 
of rice and mushrooms.^ He lived for a number of hours, 
during which the time was spent in converse with Ananda, 
his most devoted follower and personal attendant, and others 
who desired a word with the dying leader. Shortly before 
becoming unconscious he summoned his strength and said, 
"Mendicants! I now impress it upon you, decay is inherent 
in all component things ; work out your salvation with dili- 
gence !" Earnest to the very last in his desire to give direc- 
tion to all who might need it, the Buddha passed away in 
the presence of a group of his faithful disciples. No purer 
character has India given to the world, one worthy of the 
honor which has been bestowed by countless believers in 
all subsequent ages and worthy of our highest esteem and 
admiration. 

Early Buddhism 

Gautama left no written records. The early literature 
has come down to us in the PaH language and consists of the 
Three Pitakas, or ''Baskets," which contain the rules which 
the Brothers and Sisters are to observe, the truths which 
are to be taught, and the psychological system on which it 
is based. Besides the volumes collected in those writings 
certain supplementary works have been added to them, 
which are considered a part of the early canon. How much 

'Buddhism (Manual), edit, of 1912, p. 80. (S. P. C K., London.) 



i88 TFiE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

of all the teaching came from the Buddha himself it is im- 
possible to say — probably very little. Even in writings like 
the Dialogues of the Buddha, which are supposed by Pro- 
fessor Rhys Davids to have been put into Hterary form 
about fifty years after the death of Gautama, evidences of 
systematization and of arrangement according to a mnemonic 
system are quite apparent. It is easy, however, to go too 
far in this direction. We may believe that with all that was 
done in an early day to expand and elaborate the w^ords and 
teachings of the Buddha we have substantially what he 
meant in his message to the India of that day. What we 
have to work on, then, is a library of about twenty-nine 
titles in which **The number of Pali words in the whole is 
about twice the number of w^ords in our English Bible."* 

Of the various approaches which might be made to the 
study of the teachings of early Buddhism there is none more 
fruitful than that through the Three Signs, or Fundamental 
Truths. The method of approach is of real importance, for 
the teaching of the Buddha is somewhat baffling and caution 
must be exercised at a number of important turning points. 
It is only within recent years, since the PaH literature has 
been more fully explored and more carefully studied, that 
scholars have felt that they are treading on firm ground and 
really begin to know the genius of early Buddhism and the 
places where emphasis should be placed in the study. 

The first of the Fundamental Doctrines is the imperma- 
nence of all things. To put it in the ancient phrase, "All 
the constituents of life are impermanent." The statement 
is also made, "There is no being — there is only a becoming." 
This is to be accepted as literally true of all things ; gods as 
well as the tiniest atom are equally included. The passing 
away may be delayed for a long period, but the principle of 
change is the principle of all existence, and sooner or later 
the process will be evident. Just as soon as there is a begin- 



* Rhys Davids, Buddhism (American Lectures), p. 52. (Putnam, 
New York, 1896.) 



BUDDHISM 189 

ning decay also begins ; the beginning of the end is at hand. 
Here in India five hundred years before Christ is being 
preached the philosophy of change. We do not live in a 
static universe, but one in which everything is in a state of 
flux. They were not deeply concerned with ultimate be- 
ginnings or final endings ; what came home with great force 
to these early thinkers was that there was a great force in 
this world of ours which had always been causing change 
and which would continue to do so indefinitely. At about 
the same time in Greece the early philosophers were con- 
juring with the same idea. Heracleitus, about B. C. 536-470, 
denied that there was any such thing as permanence. "There 
is no static Being, no unchanging substratum. Change, 
movement, is Lord of the universe."^ And we to-day are 
still discussing the same problem. Is there anything perma- 
nent, or is everything subject to change? The doctrine of 
evolution asserts the doctrine of change and links us to the 
ancient Greeks and to the Buddha and his followers. It may 
not be the final or complete answer, but so far as it reaches 
it is the accepted doctrine in the world of the educated 
to-day. 

The early Buddhists excluded nothing from the sweep of 
their philosophy. This is the explanation of the atheism 
with which the Buddha has been charged. He was not an 
atheist; he took the gods of India for granted, but it made 
no difference to him whether they were real beings or not. 
Whatever they were and wherever they might be at any 
time, they were bound by the same law of impermanence 
and change. There was no essential difference between the 
most exalted of them and men. All belonged to the same 
universe and were subject in the same way to its laws. Why 
should anyone look to them ? They could give no assistance 
which man could not render himself. They were in the 
possession of no powers man did not have at his disposal. 

'A. K. Rogers, A Student's History of Philosophy, p. 15. (Mac- 
millan, New York, new edit., 1916.) 



190 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

The result was that the Buddha constructed a system in 
which no god was needed. A sense of dependence on a god 
was hke leaning on a broken reed. He might for the time 
being seem strong and wise, but it was only a passing phase 
with no assurance of continuance. So, then, worship was 
useless and prayer an empty form. What we have is a sys- 
tem which strictly speaking is no religion at all. Later we 
shall try to estimate the meaning of this conclusion in the 
light of other facts, which would indicate that elements of 
a true religious attitude were to be found in the system from 
the beginning, even though formally everything religious 
seemed to be excluded. 

The second of the Fundamental Signs is that sorrow is 
implicit in all individuality. ''AH the constituents of life are 
full of misery." The Buddha's discovery under the Bo-tree 
was that the cause of the misery which he himself had 
sought to escape and which he found everywhere in the 
world was desire, and desire is the inevitable accompaniment 
of conscious existence. We cannot gain what we want and 
we cannot escape what we dislike, and this involves misery 
and sorrow. This doctrine of suflfering and its cure has 
received classic expression in the teaching of the Four 
Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, which we must 
give as shortly as possible : 

I. "Now, this, O recluses, is the noble truth concerning 
suffering." Then in many forms the statement is made that 
all human experience involves suffering, because it flows 
from individuality, or separate conscious existence. To 
live and cling to life involves desire and hence sorrow. The 
point to keep in mind is that it is not life, the mere living, 
which is attended with sorrow. We shall see that when a 
man has attained the "ideal state" in this life he still may 
continue to live on for many years without sorrow. This 
is possible because he has learned how he can live with no 
desire after continued individuality and all that that 
involves. 



BUDDHISM 191 

2. "Now, this, O recluses, is the noble truth concerning 
the origin of suffering. Verily it originates in that craving 
thirst which causes the renewal of becomings, is accom- 
panied by sensual delights, and seeks satisfaction now here, 
now there — that is to say, the craving for the gratification of 
the passions, or the craving for a future life, or the craving 
for success in this present life." So long as the enticements 
of the outside world have the slightest attraction for us we 
are subject to pain and sorrow. 

3. "Now, this, O recluses, is the noble truth concerning 
the destruction of suffering. 

"Verily, it is the destruction, in which no craving remains 
over, of this very thirst; the laying aside of, the getting rid 
of, the being free from, the harboring no longer of, this 
thirst." 

4. "And this, O recluses, is the noble truth concerning 
the way which leads to the destruction of suffering." 

"Verily, it is this Noble Eightfold Path ; that is to say : 
"Right Views (free from superstition and delusion) — 
"Right Aspirations (high, and worthy of the intelligent, 
earnest man) — 
"Right Speech (kindly, open, truthful) — 
"Right Conduct (peaceful, honest, pure) — 
"Right Livelihood (bringing hurt or danger to no living 
thing)— 

"Right Effort (in self- training and in self-control) — 
. "Right Mindfulness (the active, watchful mind) — 

"Right Rapture (in deep meditation on the reaHties of 
life)."* 

In the course of his gradual progress in the Path the 
monk must break the Ten Fetters, Delusion of Self, Doubt, 
the Efficacy of Good Works and Ceremonies, Sensuality, 
111- Will, Love of Life on Earth, Desire for a Future Life 
in Heaven, Pride, Self-righteousness, and Ignorance. 

When a man shall have achieved the eight positive char- 

* Quoted from Buddhism (American Lectures), pp. 136-138. 



192 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

acteristics of the Noble Path and broken the Ten Fetters, 
he has become an Arhat (also Arahat, Arahant), and thus 
has realized the Buddhist ideal of life. It is also known as 
Nirvana, or "the going out" — "the going out of the three 
fires of lust, ill-will, and dullness, or ignorance." So then, 
Arhatship, or Nirvana, may be attained here in this life, a 
state of perfect mental quiet and rest, in which no desire 
ruffles the poise of the peaceful monk (save, of course, the 
desire for more of the present satisfaction and the desire to 
bestow the gift on others) and no longing breaks in on his 
contemplation. But is there no future life, no expectation 
beyond the time when his body shall crumble away in old 
age and death? This can only be answered by a considera- 
tion of the last of the signs. 
^ This Truth is that of the absence of a "soul," the "no- 
soul" doctrine. "All the constituents of life are without a 
soul." We are individuals, but we have no permanent or 
even temporary soul as an entity in itself. It is all a delusion 
that there is such a thing as a person or a chariot or a chair. 
These are only names which we give to the temporary 
gathering together into a seeming unity of qualities or "ag- 
gregates" which are only parts of the all-embracing uni- 
verse in which we live and of which we form a part. You 
may ask of a chair as you mention each part, "Is this the 
chair?" and, of course, the answer must in each case be 
"No." Then the Buddhist says: "Where, then, is your 
chair?" It has eluded you — there is no chair! What you 
call a chair is but the name you give to the temporary col- 
lection of parts which when brought together may perform 
a useful function. So of a human being. He is composed of 
parts which when assembled under certain conditions we call 
an individual, but there is no real person there, no you nor 
I nor he. The parts which make up a human being are 
called Skandhas, or "aggregates," and they are five in num- 
ber. First there are the material properties, in short our 
physical bodies. Then follow four mental qualities, which, 



BUDDHISM 193 

as nearly as we are able to designate them in the terms of 
modern psychology, may be given thus : sensations, or feel- 
ings; abstract ideas, or perception; potentialities, or the 
elements of consciousness; and thought, or consciousness 
taken as a unified whole. We, to speak of ourselves as 
individuals, are merely the name which is given to the five 
skandhas when they are thus united. What holds them 
together is what might be called the "thread of Hfe." When 
at death the thread is broken the skandhas fall apart never 
again to reassemble. That individual has ceased to be and 
will never come into existence again. There is no soul, so 
how could he? 

But Buddhism believes in transmigration, and the question 
naturally arises. How can there be any transmigration when 
there is no soul to transmigrate? It would seem that the 
Buddha should have dropped this doctrine altogether. There 
must have been good reason for retaining it when it plunged 
him into such a strange dilemma. The fact is, the Buddha 
held fast to the old theory because it offered him a moral 
explanation of the cruel inequalities of life. He could not 
find sufficient reason in men's conduct in this life to justify 
the measure of blessing and suffering which was the lot of 
his fellow human beings. It must be because of good deeds 
or wickedness done in a previous life. Now, while this was 
satisfying as far as it went — provided, of course, one could 
believe in any kind of transmigration — the Buddha met the 
same question again. How believe in transmigration when 
one has no belief in a soul? And here is one of the most 
difficult and subtle points in the whole theory of early Bud- 
dhism, so important that it is repeated many times over in 
the PaH Hterature. There is no soul, but something does 
or may pass over into another existence. It is the sum total 
or the net result of all the actions which have been per- 
formed by the individuals who have followed one after 
another in the series. That is, the individual now living 
inherits from the individual which preceded him the result 



194 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

of his moral achievement or failure. He may rise higher 
in the scale or sink lower than his predecessor according 
as he adds to or subtracts from the moral content which he 
inherited. What causes him to be born at all if he is not 
the same individual who had lived before? So long as any 
one dies and still has desire or craving (in the Buddhist 
sense) left in his heart another set of skandhas is bound to 
assemble and form another individual who must take up the 
task where his predecessor left it. And so it goes on from 
one individual to another until in the end the series to which 
they have all belonged comes to an end forever when one 
arises who succeeds in crushing out desire, becomes an 
Arhat, and enters Nirvana. His body may keep on living 
for years, but when it dies the skandhas fall apart and there 
is nothing to require another set of skandhas to gather again, 
for there is nothing left around which they may assemble. 
Karma simply ceases to function in this case. 

This is the Buddhist law of Karma. According to this 
law, new individuals are born one after another until all 
desire is used up. There is no more Karma, or Karma 
has been used up, are different ways of speaking of the same 
process and its final ending. So with all the change taking 
place in the universe and in every particle of matter in it, 
there is an unchanging law according to which all this takes 
place. It is impersonal and works by a kind of blind neces- 
sity, but it is inevitable and unchanging, the one great pro- 
pelling power in the universe. The Buddha gives no evi- 
dence that he ever thought of these final questions. He was 
averse to any such consideration. He makes the statement 
many times that he is concerned with one thing only, and 
that is sorrow and the curing of sorrow — all else is irrele- 
vant. But the cure in its final outcome seems to us so inade- 
quate. When an Arhat has in this life attained Nirvana, 
what becomes of him when his body dies? What becomes 
of a candle flame when it is blown out? We are on delicate 
ground, but the Buddhist is likely to answer the inquirer 



BUDDHISM 195 

at this point by saying that nothing essential is lost. We 
of the West are not satisfied and insist, "Is not conscious- 
ness lost, and personality lost, and without these what re- 
mains?" And still the Buddhist repHes, ''Nothing is lost" — 
so wide is the chasm between the mind of the East and 
the West ! 

Surely, all this could not be expected to find lodgment 
in the minds of the common people, and it never did. At- 
tainment was possible only to those who separated them- 
selves from ordinary life and became monks, living a life 
apart in communities to attain the end they sought. The 
order was not a priesthood, standing between God and men. 
The gods were of no use, and man must secure his attain- 
ment by his own powers, so a priesthood would have been 
an anomaly. The order was merely a means and an aid to 
spiritual attainment. During the whole history of Buddhism 
the order of monks is the key to its expansion and its power 
in every land to which it has gone. The monasteries, 
large and small, in every Buddhist country attest the hold 
of the idea of salvation through self-discipline on the minds 
of men and women. Formal and even degenerate though 
they may have become in many cases, the monastic institu- 
tions still continue to live and influence the lives of the 
people. 

The Buddha, the Doctrine, and the Order are the three 
anchors of early Buddhism. When the candidate for the 
order comes before the abbot of a monastery he repeats 
this formula: 

"I go for refuge to the Buddha. 
I go for refuge to the Law (Dharma). 
I go for refuge to the Order (Sangha)."' 

This is about as near a prayer as early Buddhism achieved. 
In it lies the germ of an amazing development when real 
prayer was offered to real gods who were looked upon as 

'Quoted from Rhys Davids, Buddhism (manual), p. 160. 



196 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

able to deliver them, but this does not belong to the early 
day. The monasteries were not to be the permanent home 
of the monks in the original intention. They were to be 
penniless wanderers (Bhikshus), depending on the gifts of 
the laity for their daily needs. Only during the rainy season 
were they to be located in a definite place. But the tempta- 
tion was great to possess a permanent seat, and there arose 
great institutions with magnificent establishments wherever 
the religion was carried. A monk might possess nothing of 
this world's goods, but the monastery could. As a result 
they became powerful and had immense influence, like the 
monasteries in Europe in the Middle Ages. The equipment 
of the monks was exceedingly simple. An almsbowl, in 
which to secure food on the daily round; the three vest- 
ments, so that the entire body might be covered ; a staflF, a 
needle, a razor, a tooth-pick, a water-strainer, so as not to 
destroy animal life in drinking — and he was fully furnished. 
There was little variation in the daily routine. Early morn- 
ing recitation of the sacred books and meditation, the round 
for alms in the mid-morning, the simple noonday meal, rest 
and meditation again, the day closing with service and reci- 
tations in the hall of the monastery. There were no serv- 
ices for the public and no real worship. During the rainy 
season the monks would preach to the people. The regula- 
tions have been changed greatly in diflferent countries and 
at dififerent periods, but these simple rules were those with 
which the institution started and to some extent prevail 
to-day. 

The monk was bound to obey The Eight Precepts : 

"One should not destroy life. 

"One should not take that which is not given. 

"One should not tell lies. 

"One should not become a drinker of intoxicating liquors. 

"One should refrain from unlawful sexual intercourse — 
an ignoble thing. 

"One should not eat unseasonable food at nights. 



BUDDHISM 197 

"One should not wear garlands nor use perfumes. 
"One should sleep on a mat spread on the ground."" 
The first five are manifestly on a different plane from the 
last three. The Buddhists recognized this, and when incul- 
cating moral principles among the common people required 
of them a strict observance of the first five only. So while 
the Buddhist did not believe in a soul, the moral system 
clearly indicates that he set high store on the discipline of 
life, through which he hoped for purity and honor. All this 
is to the credit of the system and demands recognition as a 
marked advance upon the practice and teaching of the sur- 
rounding population of India. It has gone with Buddhism 
into the Eastern world as a steadying influence, and doubt- 
less explains in part its favorable reception into many lands 
which might otherwise have turned away from its teaching. 

HiNAYANA AND MaHAYANA 

To recount the story of the development of Buddhism 
and its expansion into the countries of eastern and southern 
Asia would take long. The Buddha lived in the sixth and 
fifth centuries before Christ ; one estimate gives the dates as 
B. C. 560-480. The first date in Indian history of which 
we may be sure is when Alexander the Great invaded India 
in B. C. 326. We do not know much about the condition of 
Buddhism until the reign of Asoka, who ascended the throne 
in B. C. 273 and ruled as the first real emperor of India for 
about forty years. The significant fact is that Asoka became 
a Buddhist and ruled his wide dominions according to the 
precepts of the faith. He instituted the office of chief min- 
ister of justice and religion, whose main task was to preserve 
the purity of the faith. The most notable contribution he 
made to the cause of Buddhism, however, was the sending 
of embassies or missions to various countries to carry the 
teaching. In this way many countries were reached, notably 

'Quoted from Rhys Davids, Buddhism (manual), p. 13J). 



iq8 the religions OF MANKIND 

Ceylon, whose history began with the coming of Buddhism. 
Again there is a long period about which Httle is known. At 
about the time of Christ a king arose in the far northwest of 
India named Kanishka, who was not an Indian at all, but 
belonged to one of the peoples of the great central Asian 
plateau. He began to rule in A. D. 78, embraced Buddhism, 
and took much interest in the faith and its development. 
Again there is little information for centuries until in the 
fifth and again in the seventh century Chinese pilgrims, 
men who had become Buddhists, made journeys to India to 
visit the historic places where the Buddha had lived and 
died and to carry back relics and books to their home in 
China. We learn from the volumes these men wrote that 
Buddhism, which had been very strong, was on the decline. 
There may have been some persecution, but the real cause 
of the deterioration was that Buddhism w^as not distinctive 
and rigid enough to escape being drawn back into the Hin- 
duism from which it had emerged. By the time of the Mo- 
hammedan incursions into India, which began in the year 
A. D. 1000, Buddhism had about disappeared, and now in 
the land of its birth and early power the faith of Gautama 
the Buddha, her most illustrious son, is only a memory. 

Such, in brief, is the sad story of the disappearance of a 
faith from the land for which it promised to do so much. 
These outward changes and vicissitudes, however, are of 
lesser interest compared with the inner development and 
transformation which befell the faith itself. The evolution 
cannot be traced with any accuracy ; about all we know is 
that at a certain time the faith was one thing, and then again 
several centuries after it had become something very dif- 
ferent. Councils were called to decide on questions on which 
the monasteries differed, but much obscurity hangs over 
these assemblies. A notable council was held under the 
patronage of Kanishka about A. D. 100, after which a deep 
cleavage is apparent between two schools of thought, the 
Hinayana and the Mahayana. The name of Xagarjuna is 



BUDDHISM 199 

also heard ; he is reputed to have been one of the leaders who 
made the crisis more significant and became the great pro- 
moter of the Mahayana teaching. 

The terms need defining. Hinayana means the ''little ve- 
hicle," only fitted to carry a small number on the way to 
salvation, and Mahayana means "large vehicle," as a means 
of salvation sufficient to accommodate all who would come. 
Manifestly, the name "Hinayana" was given by their oppo- 
nents who desired to call attention to their own superior 
doctrine. But long before these two schools separated the 
teaching, which later was to be called Hinayana, had devel- 
oped. It was based on the teaching of the Buddha, but had 
diverged widely from it at one or two points. Gautama had 
turned his back on the gods of India and constructed a sys- 
tem without worship, sacrifice, prayer, or any sense of de- 
pendence on a higher power. He had essayed to do the 
impossible — the need of help in the struggle of life and the 
tendency to turn to some being who is powerful enough to 
render assistance is too strongly intrenched in human nature 
to be thus eradicated. Even in his own lifetime the Buddha 
was raised to a most exalted position by his disciples. They 
came to look upon him as almost omniscient and all-wise, 
ready to meet any emergency. He carried himself with the 
dignity which forbade undue intimacy. He was a man apart 
from other men. Despite his democracy, which is un- 
doubted, his elevation and disinterestedness in the ordinary 
things of life cast an atmosphere of aloofness about him, 
which was only increased by the sanctity which seemed nat- 
urally to belong to one who was so kind and pure and good. 
He was almost their god while he journeyed with them, 
intent on teaching them that there was no need of gods. 
Little wonder is it that in the centuries after he had passed 
away the Buddha himself should have been raised to the 
position in the spiritual world where men could look for his 
assistance and raise hands to him in prayer. This is the 
essence of the Hinayana. It became a kind of theistic faith, 



200 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

placing the Buddha above all the gods of the land. Gau- 
tama was considered a sinless being ; the doctrine arose that 
he had been born of a virgin, that he was perfect in wisdom 
and power, and that he had been able to perform wonders 
during his life. The theory arose that Gautama was the 
last of a long series of Buddhas who had preceded him, and 
that there was one yet to come, Maitriya Buddha, the gra- 
cious god who would restore all things. This is the form of 
Buddhism which with many differences prevails in Ceylon, 
Burma, and Siam, and is frequently spoken of as Southern 
Buddhism. 

Professor Rhys Davids claims^ that the teaching of Gau- 
tama in its purity was not put in practice outside a narrow 
circle in his own time and immediately following. Men are 
in trouble and need help, and no teaching which attempts to 
dam up the impulse to prayer and worship can succeed in 
doing so very long; the Nemesis will come and human nature 
will assert its inaHenable right to seek after God and claim 
his protection and help. The Mahayana, however, \yent so 
much farther than the Hinayana that it felt it could point 
the finger of scorn at its less daring sister. When Bud- 
dhism came into contact with the rough warriors and nomads 
from the central Asian Steppes, who came into India about 
the time of Christ, the "no-soul" theory almost disappeared. 
It was repugnant to the hardy men who were poles apart 
from the meditative and more languid dwellers on the hot, 
depressing plains of India. Among the thoughtful in all 
the Eastern lands such a theory might hold its own, and, in 
fact, we do meet with it to-day, but the people have little 
place for it, and rejoice in the thought that they may not 
only go to some god, but that they are beings who live and 
have real power. 

Much thought and work must have been put on the system 
of the Mahayana before it was complete. When the cur- 



^ Article, "Hinayana," in Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and 
Ethics. 



BUDDHISM 2di 

tain is drawn we are amazed by its complexity and extent. 
A new universe has been created filled with spiritual beings 
and opening out possibilities to men they had not dreamed 
of even in the Hinayana. The salvation was all-embracive, 
fitted to the needs of men whether they might enter the por- 
tals of a monastery or not. No wonder the Hinayana, still 
clinging to much of the teaching of the master, should seem 
narrow and uninviting. At the forefront of their teaching 
was the conception of an Eternal Being, or Deity, the very 
Lord of the Universe. This being is both a philosophical 
conception, called Dharmakaya, the first of the "three bod- 
ies" of the eternal Buddha, and a more or less personal 
god of love, known as Adi-Buddha. Men do not come into 
immediate contact with this ultimate Being, but they are not 
left helpless. This Adi-Buddha has by the power of con- 
templation projected into existence five "Buddhas of Con- 
templation" (Dhyani Buddhas), and these in turn have sent 
out five other beings, who are the actual creators of the phys- 
ical universe, and these again have their representatives in 
the world of men. We are now Hving in the fourth of the 
worlds which have been created, and our human Buddha, 
the representative of the more exalted spiritual Buddhas, 
is the historic Gautama. So in the Mahayana not only have 
gods been created to meet the needs of men, but Gautama 
has been relegated to a subordinate position. They pre- 
ferred to scale the ladder of speculation and make gods to 
their liking rather than remain true to the historic Gautama 
and raise him to the supreme place in their pantheon. 

A new career was opened up before men. In the teach- 
ing of Gautama and the Hinayana to become an Arhat and 
thus to enter Nirvana was the ideal. Another idea had been 
known, however, and this proved useful to the fertile minds 
of the Mahayana system makers. Gautama had long been 
looked upon as one of a series of Buddhas, the last of which, 
the ''coming one," was Maitriya Buddha. Here was the 
conception of one yet to come, a Bodhisattva, a ''Future 



202 THR RELIGIOXS OF MANKIND 

Buddha." In the Mahayana this idea was developed and 
made only second in importance to the doctrine of the Eter- 
nal Deity and his manifestations. Bodhisattva means "one 
whose essence is enlightenment," but it is used to designate 
those spiritual beings who are ready to enter the final state 
of Buddhahood, which would mean separation from all the 
concerns of men here below, but who refrain from doing so 
for the time being in order that they may be of service to 
all who may appeal to them. There are many of these ex- 
alted beings, some of them widely revered, who are gods in 
all lands where the Mahayana has been carried. To wor- 
ship these Bodhisattvas now becomes the central point in 
the religious Hfe of the laymen. They have a full-fledged 
religion with ''gods many and lords many." And now to 
come back to the new career which was placed before men 
— to prepare to become a Bodhisattva in the spiritual world 
after we have passed out of this life — is the end and aim of 
all good men. Some progress can be made in this direction 
even by laymen in this life, when as Future-Bodhisattvas 
they may begin to take the steps and undergo the discipline 
necessary to the purifying of life that the great goal may 
ultimately be reached. The superiority of this aim over that 
of the Arhat is readily seen. The Arhat treads the path to 
win for himself release and peace; the Future-Bodhisattva 
strives to fit himself to become a helper of men, a saviour 
to all those in bondage and distress. Altruism has now be- 
come the sinnmum honum, with a sweep that is universal. 
Xot one human being lies outside the purpose of those who 
look forward to a life of unselfish service. 

Instead of the lifeless Nirvana as the goal of all existence 
the Mahayana has substituted a paradise where the souls of 
men and women may live in conscious blessedness and peace. 
The idea of the soul has come back and affects the doctrine 
at several important points. As might be expected, a hell 
is brought in for the wicked as a heaven is for the good. 
It cannot be said that the life in heaven or hell is everlast- 



BUDDHISM 203 

ing. The haunting conception of Nirvana will not be com- 
pletely put down, and beyond the heavens and the hells — 
for there are numbers of each — lies in the distant haze the 
land of passionless peace, where men are lost in unconscious 
absorption in the everlasting nothingness which India can- 
not shake off. 

It is manifestly impossible within the compass of a single 
chapter to do justice to so complicated and multiform a 
system as the Mahayana. The attempt has been made to 
point out two of the lines of development, Mahayana as a 
religion or devotion, in which spiritual beings are worshiped, 
and Mahayana as a regimen or way of Hfe, in which the 
Future-Bodhisattva, or saint, enters upon the path which in 
the end will lead to a career of unbounded usefulness in the 
spiritual world. There is still another, a philosophical devel- 
opment, which was hinted at when mention was made of the 
Dharmakaya, or the first of the three bodies of the eternal 
Buddha. This Dharmakaya, or ''body of the law," is reality, 
the actual substance or nature of every being, gods or men, 
in the whole universe. The other bodies, Sambhogakaya, or 
"body of bliss," and Nirmanakaya, or "magical body," are 
manifestations of the ultimate reality in the world of spirit- 
ual beings and men. The philosophical problem, then, hinges 
on the conception of Dharmakaya, or what is reality? One 
school, that of the Madhyamikas, makes Dharmakaya, or 
reality, void or vacuity. They are the philosophical nihilists 
of Buddhism. ''Everything is void," is their conclusion. A 
second school, that of the Vijnanavadins, the idealists of 
Buddhism, claims that the only real existences are thoughts, 
that thoughts do not stand for or reproduce any objective 
reality. Thoughts can think themselves without a thinker 
or reference to anything outside themselves. It is an eternal 
illusion that object and subject exist; only thought has any 
existence whatever. This philosophical development has 
exerted a deep and lasting influence in all the countries of 
Eastern Asia where Buddhism was carried. 



204 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

Buddhism Among the Peoples 

The Buddhism of Ceylon, Burma, and Siam is Hina- 
yana. The religion was also carried in this form to Annam, 
Cochin-China, and Cambodia, now parts of the French em- 
pire in the Far East. It also made its way to the island 
world of the Dutch East Indies and took root in Java, Bali, 
and Sumatra. This was long ago, for when Islam pene- 
trated the eastern archipelago in the sixteenth century the 
religion of the Buddha disappeared. Driven out of Java, 
those who remained true to their faith fled to the little 
island of Bali, but even there most have become Saivites and 
little Buddhism is to be found. It is a question whether 
the Mahayana or the Hinayana was the more prominent in 
the islands, for both give evidence of having been preached 
successfully. It is exceedingly interesting to find the ruins 
of magnificent Mahayana buildings so many hundreds of 
miles away from the lands where this form of the faith has 
had its characteristic growth and development. Differing 
from the experience in India proper, Buddhism, after a 
desperate conflict with Hinduism in the lands of Farther 
India, came out victorious and remains in possession of the 
field to this day. 

But is it really the religion of the people? Outwardly it 
would seem so. All these lands are filled with the para- 
phernalia of the Buddhist religion: temples and monasteries, 
pagodas and images are to be found everywhere. Each 
country has its own characteristic forms, but each gives 
ample evidence on every hand of its Buddhist allegiance. 
The monks are there, and services and festivals are held, 
to which the people come in gala dress, enjoying the occa- 
sions to the full. With all this, however, the hold of Bud- 
dhism on the inner lives of the people is precarious. A 
man's inner convictions are revealed in the time of crisis, 
when sorrow and suflfering and loss stare him in the face. 
What is his religion then? Which way does he turn for 



BUDDHISM 205 

help and comfort ? The testimony from each of these south- 
ern lands is that it is not to the monks and the Buddha, but 
to the old'^spirits and sprites of the animism which was theirs 
before the coming of Buddhism. The new religion did not 
succeed in driving out the old fears, and they have persisted 
through the centuries despite the superior teaching which 
should have supplanted them. And have we not the right to 
expect this of one of the higher religions ? 

It is also unfortunate that the monks have to so large 
an extent lost the confidence of the people. Of course there 
are many exceptions. Worthy and good men, pure of life 
and motive, are to be found, but the general reputation the 
monks have is that they lead idle, useless lives and have not 
succeeded in overcoming the temptations of the flesh, which 
was a matter of such deep concern on the part of Gautama. 
In Burma the religion has penetrated more deeply into the 
hfe of the people than in any other of the Hinayana coun- 
tries. This is doubtless due to the fact that education 
has been in the hands of the monks, who thus are able to 
instill Buddhist ideas into the minds of the people while 
they are young and impressionable. It is also customary in 
Burma for a young man to give a certain time to monastic 
life. These features of the religious life of Burma have 
succeeded in keeping the people in close touch with their 
religious teachers. In Siam the king is the chief patron of 
Buddhism. The heads of the order must be nominated by 
the king, who honors the monks and supports them lav- 
ishly. The present king, an enlightened and progressive 
man, educated in England, has taken his religious task seri- 
ously and is doing all he can to make the religion a power in 
the kingdom. In Ceylon and Burma there is a reform move- 
ment, made up of cultured people who desire to go back 
to the simplicity of the practice and teaching of the Buddha 
and to interpret the faith more in accord with Western 
culture and the teachings of the schools. They have preach- 
ing halls with sermons and the recitation of a creed. 



2o6 THE RELIGIOxXS OF MANKIND 

Whether there is enough that is distinctive in the faith to 
hold the minds and hearts of men and women as they 
emerge into the strong current of modern Hfe with all its 
problems is a grave question, which can only be settled by 
the test of time and experience. 

In the north Buddhism has penetrated China, Korea, and 
Japan. The faith here is of the Mahayana type, and is fre- 
quently called Northern Buddhism. But besides these coun- 
tries, the religion has taken deep root in the great elevated 
plateau, the hinterland of Asia. Beginning its career in 
Tibet, it has pushed farther and farther to the north and 
northeast until one arm has swung around and come in con- 
tact with Chinese Buddhism in the capital city of Peking. 
It also is to be found in the little Himalayan states between 
India and Tibet. So distinct is this form of Buddhism that 
it deserves special treatment. It has been given the name 
of Lamaism, from the monks, who are called "lamas," 
although that term belongs rightly to the abbots, meaning 
as it does "superior" or "better." Tibetan history begins 
with the coming of Buddhism into the country in the seventh 
century A. D. It came in through two wives of an able 
chieftain, one from Nepal and the other from China, both of 
which countries had received Buddhism centuries before. 
The peculiarity which at once attracts attention is the doc- 
trine of incarnation, known nowhere else in Buddhism. It 
did not become a fully accepted doctrine until the seven- 
teenth century. Since then it has been held that the Bo- 
dhisattva Avalokitesvara (also Padmapani) was incarnate 
in the Dalai Lama, the ruler of the country. Other Grand 
Lamas have their seats in different sections, all claiming to 
be incarnations of Bodhisattvas, but none can approach the 
Dalai Lama in earthly majesty because of his possession of 
the scepter of the land. When the Dalai, or "Great," 
Lama dies the rule is placed in the hand of some young boy 
who gives evidence (by strange and varied signs) that 
Avalokita has taken up his abode in him. He is then ac- 



BUDDHISM 207 

claimed as the new incarnation, and he holds sway, reli- 
giously and politically, until his death. 

The gods and spiritual beings of Lamaism form a pop- 
ulous and strange pantheon. All the Buddhas and Bodhi- 
sattvas of the Mahayana are there. The name of Amitabha 
begins to appear, the being who is destined to take first 
place in all eastern Asia. Besides all these there are ''heal- 
ing" Buddhas and every kind of tutelary deity, kings of the 
four cardinal points of the compass, Yama the judge of the 
dead, and finally spirits and demons, and saints who have 
passed over into the great beyond. Idolatry as well as 
polytheism has run mad, and images of all these beings are 
displayed and worshiped everywhere. The center of the 
religion is, of course, the monastic life. There are said to 
be over three thousand monasteries, or Lamasaries, in Tibet, 
the largest in the capital, Lhassa, containing as many as ten 
thousand monks. WaddelF emphasizes the terrible effect 
of Buddhist monasticism on Tibet. The country has stead- 
ily decHned in power and numbers, the population now not 
being a tenth part of its former size. He declares there is 
"one monk for every three of the entire lay community, 
including the women and children. . . . The population is, 
presumably as a consequence of overmonasticism, steadily 
drifting toward extinction." 

Buddhism has raised the people out of certain depths of 
savagery, but the notorious impurity of the monks and the 
hardness and cruelty of nature and man in this forbidding 
land have done little to inculcate high ideals of life. The 
idea of recompense in heavens and hells and the fear of 
evil spirits has taken strong hold until the religion is one 
of fear and terror. All the poor layman wants of religion 
is to secure charms against these spirits. It has become 
pure magic. He repeats sacred formulas; he writes them 
on paper and swallows them ; he inscribes them on cloth and 

"Article^ "Lamaism," in Hastings' Encyclopaedi?i of Religion and 

Ethics, 



2o8 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

allows them to flutter in the wind ; he devises so-called 
"prayer cylinders" and mechanically grinds out the charmed 
petitions as he walks or works ; he even harnesses them to 
water-wheels and thus nature assists him in his "devotions." 
Such is Buddhism at its worst, in a land exhausted physi- 
cally and spiritually by priest-craft, for which there seems 
little hope without the coming of a salvation which shall 
save them from themselves and the strange devisings of 
their hearts. 

Buddhism probably reached China in the first century 
A. D., but it did not spread rapidly until the fourth century, 
when the Chinese were allowed to become monks. One of 
the most remarkable events was the coming of Bodhidharma, 
the Patriarch of Indian Buddhism, who took up his abode 
in China in the year 526. Buddhism was not well suited to 
China and has never ceased to be a kind of exotic. The 
idle life of the monks who performed no productive labor 
was utterly irrational to the practical Chinese, and the idea 
of celibacy was repugnant to a people who believed as much 
as they believed anything that not to be married and have 
sons was a sin of the deepest dye. , The religion has suffered 
a number of bitter persecutions. In the eighth century 
twelve thousand monks and nuns were compelled to come 
back into ordinary life and behave themselves like other 
folks. In the ninth century four thousand six hundred 
monasteries were destroyed and more than two hundred and 
sixty thousand members of the order were compelled 
to become secular. But Buddhism could not be driven out 
and remains a force in the land to this day. 

The reason for this lies undoubtedly in the fact that it 
brought into the life of the people elements which would 
otherwise be wanting. A spiritual world, gods who were 
human and full of compassion, rewards in another life, the 
mediation of the monks who stand between the gods and 
men — all these features of the Mahayana made an irresistible 
appeal to the Chinese and explain the presence of Buddhism 



BUDDHISM 209 

in China. The pantheon is not so spacious as that of Tibet, 
but the Chinese Buddhists worship Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, 
saints, and patriarchs, and tutelary deities. Gautama holds 
a high place, though Amitabha is first in the popular thought, 
as he rules the western paradise, to which they desire to be 
admitted through his mercy. Kwanyin, whom we met in 
Tibet as Avalokitesvara, has now been transformed into a 
female divinity and is worshiped as the goddess of mercy. 
The pagodas are everywhere and have become a part of 
the nature superstition of the people. The people come to 
the monks for all kinds of assistance, even the rich and edu- 
cated on occasion. Yet with all that, the people are not to 
be counted as Buddhists, only the monks and nuns should 
be reckoned as such in any proper sense. The Chinese come 
to Buddhism because of needs otherwise unmet, but they do 
not exactly belong to the religion by inward allegiance and 
appropriation. 

Buddhism expanded eastward from China by way of 
Korea. In Korea the religion took deep hold and for cen- 
turies was the dominant religious influence in the country. 
In A. D. 1392 a new dynasty came to the throne which 
proved to be unfriendly to the Buddhists. The monks were 
excluded from the capital city and were not encouraged in 
any place. As a result the immense establishments have 
dwindled until the aspect of Buddhism is that of decrepi- 
tude. Dr. H. Hackmann speaks of the picture of Korean 
Buddhism as /'on the whole a very dull and faded one.'" 
Temples and monasteries are still found, exemplifying some 
unique artistic traits pecuHar to the country, but for the 
most part their best days seem to be in the past. An effort 
is now being made by Japanese Buddhists to put new life 
into the old forms, and only time will show what hope there 
may be in this movement. The Korean people as a whole 
have reverted to the old animism of pre-Buddhist days and 



Buddhism as a Religion, p. 257. (Probsthain, London, 1910.) 



210 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

seem far more intent on exorcising demons than on paying 
reverence to some Buddha or Bodhisattva. 

We do not know just when the new faith reached Japan. 
In A. D. 552 an embassy from the king of Korea gave a 
formal introduction to the doctrine, which was to some ex- 
tent already known. By the time the great imperial minister 
Shotoku Taishi died in A. D. 621 Buddhism may be said to 
have been acclimated. Shotoku embraced the faith and gave 
himself to wholehearted advocacy of the new movement. 
Far more than in China and Korea the faith of the Buddha 
has entered into the life of the nation and the people. It 
cannot be understood out of its relations with the whole 
course of the nation's history. For a thousand years it was 
the religion of the common people and the upper classes as 
well. But early in the seventeenth century a reaction set in 
and Buddhism has more or less ceased to be the power it 
had been in the lives of the educated and the gentry. It 
remained what it is to-day, the religion of the people. 
Divided into a number of powerful sects, in some cases 
very different from each other, the religion keeps up its 
forms and even its life, and is seeking to assimilate the 
various factors of the new age which has dawned. Again 
it is too early to estimate the strength inherent in these new 
developments. Very unfortunately, the leadership, with 
notable exceptions, is not measuring up to the demands of 
the hour and leaves much to be desired in personal character 
and influence. The average monk is an ignorant man, not 
highly thought of, because of indolence, the reputation for 
immorality, and charges of graft which have in recent years 
been proved against certain influential leaders. Yet in all 
probability Buddhism is more progressive and in a more 
flourishing condition in Japan than in any other Buddhist 
country. 

It is a far call from Ceylon to Japan ; it is even farther 
from Gautama to present-day Buddhism. The remarkable 
part of it all is that we should still continue to call by the 



BUDDHISM 211 

name of the Buddha a religion which is so varied and con- 
tains such contradictory elements in its various sects and in 
the different countries of its adoption. What the Buddha 
taught is denied, and what he repudiated is practiced by those 
who would never admit the charge of unorthodoxy. They 
speak of these changes as developments which lay in germ 
in the mind of the great master. One might be inclined to 
doubt the validity of this claim and yet justify the title 
"Buddhism" to all the forms the religion has assumed. All 
recognize that Gautama was the human founder of the faith 
of which historically they are a part. All believe that his 
ideas were living and germinal, and that it is possible to 
live in general agreement with the inner meaning of his 
purpose even though the actual doctrines may seem to con- 
tradict much that he taught. They find sorrow in the world 
as he did and are seeking to cure it; they are quite willing 
to follow his ethical demands as far better than anything 
they had known; they look to him as the pure example of 
loving service and find it difficult to measure up to his un- 
selfish life. In all these regards they are the followers of 
Gautama and consider it an honor to be known by his name, 
so lasting is the influence of a life nobly lived. 

Most unfortunately, practice has fallen far behind pre- 
cept. That, of course, is true in all religions, but here bar- 
riers exist which cannot be removed. The doctrine has 
always been above the heads of the people, whether in the 
teaching of Gautama or in its later developments. What 
has been given to them is far removed from the sublime 
teaching of the schools, into the depths of which few could 
enter. Monasticism has been a bar to all progress, and Bud- 
dhism has always brought the monk and the monastery. It 
has produced a deep cleavage in human life between the 
religious man and the laity, and it has never succeeded, ex- 
cept in a few cases, in producing the type of character at 
which it aimed. Monasticism has hung like a pall over 
people who needed to see the light, and who, if they did not 



212 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

see it in the lives of their rcHgious leaders, would never see 
it at all. 

Suggestions for Further Study 

T. W. Rhys Davids, Buddhism (London, first edit. 1877, many sub- 
sequent editions). The best-known manual on the early teaching. 

Kenneth J. Saunders, The Story of Buddhism (London, 1916). 

Kenneth J. Saunders, Gotama Buddha (New York, 1920). 

H. Hackmann, Buddhism as a Religion (London, 1910). The best 
volume on the developments in the faith in the various lands of 
its adoption. 

Henry Clarke Warren, Buddhism in Translations (Cambridge, 1909). 
Translations of significant passages from the early literature. 

George Foot Moore, History of Religions, Vol. I, Chaps. V, 
VII. XII. 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 

The Early Religion 

What the original religion of the Chinese was has been 
the subject of much controversy. Before the existence of 
any records which have come down to us several types of 
religious belief had been formulated, and the question is, 
Which of them came out of the earliest religious attitude? 
A study of the Chinese character for the Supreme Being 
would indicate that the idea back of it was monotheistic, and 
undoubtedly there has been the conception from an early 
day of a Being raised high above all others in the spiritual 
world. At the same time evidences of animistic concep- 
tions are so numerous at every period that it is impossible to 
believe the Chinese were ever without them. Probably the 
most reasonable conclusion is that reached by Dr. W. E. 
Soothill,^ who is inclined to believe that animism first pre- 
vailed, but that long before we have any records the recog- 
nition of one Supreme Being over a real universe arose, so 
that we have two conceptions, a lower and a higher, through 
the long course of the history of Chinese religion. 

We are on safe ground when we speak of the religion of 
the Chinese. It is commonly stated that there are three 
religions in the country, not to mention Mohammedanism, 
which has always been looked upon as strange and foreign. 
These are Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. But un- 
derneath them all and expressing itself through them all is a 
religious attitude and Hfe which existed for centuries before 
the formal religions arose and which has not been changed 

*The Three Religions of China, chap V. (Hodder & Stoughton, 
London, 1913.) 

213 



214 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

essentially by them. The thoroughgoing conservatism of the 
Chinese people is seen in as complete a manner here as it 
would be possible to imagine. The gaze of the Chinese has 
been directed backward for millenniums, and all their ideals 
are in the past. We live in the period when for the first 
time in their recorded history these lovers of antiquity have 
come to realize that their only hope lies in a chaiige of front. 
They are asking for all the West may have to oflFer. What 
the ultimate eflfect will be no one can even guess. It may be 
safe to say that Chinese nature will not be fundamentally 
changed — it is too tough of fiber for that — but what the 
outcome of this eager willingness to learn of the younger 
nations will be is one of the most interesting questions 
before us to-day. 

The most characteristic form which religion has taken in 
China is crudely animistic. All nature and all its parts are 
possessed of spirits, good and bad, strong and weak. They 
are to be found everywhere, on the mountains, among the 
trees, in the ground, and under the water. Everything that 
happens is accounted for by spiritual agencies. Sickness is 
caused by demons within the body which must be exorcised. 
A child drowns not by any natural cause, but because a fiend- 
ish spirit caught the child from under the water and drew 
him down. These spirits flit about through the air, invisible 
but exceedingly real. Streets must be made crooked because 
these imps move in straight lines and can be stopped in their 
wild career by a wall. Houses must be so constructed that a 
solid wall shall be opposite every gate and door and window. 
The whole life of the people is governed by their fear of 
these dangerous beings, and much of their religion consists in 
attempts to drive them away. Exorcism, then, plays a large 
part in this low and yet all-prevalent superstition, and many 
are its forms. The spirits are divided between those that 
are good and benevolent (shen) and the evil-minded 
(kwei). To secure the assistance of a powerful shen is the 
best means of chasing ofif the harmful kwei. The sun is a 



THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 215 

shen of the highest order, and to secure his cooperation is to 
have the benefit of the most powerful influence in the con- 
test. Everything connected with the sun is efficacious. By 
a subtle magic the peach blossom, because it appears as the 
harbinger of the spring, when the sun again assumes control 
of nature, is an omen of good. The actual blossoms are 
replaced by ^ ^d paper, which has the same value. Out of the 
peach tree, on the same principle, a number of native rem- 
edies are concocted. So, again, the blood of the cock may 
ward off danger, and cocks are used as charms and in the 
making of medicines, because the cock crows as the herald 
of the rising of the sun! The tiger because of some hazy 
connection with the sun may bring good fortune. And nat- 
urally light and heat are agencies of beneficence. Bonfires, 
fire-crackers, torches, lanterns, candles, all kinds of noises, 
scorching and cauterizing the skin — whatever suggests or is 
derived from fire may be used to bring good luck or prevent 
misfortune. This is only a slight suggestion of the many 
forms the superstition takes. Whatever else he may be reli- 
giously the Chinese is a believer in spirits and in the necessity 
of exorcism. He may be ashamed of his belief, but he has 
recourse nevertheless to the exorcists when he gets into a 
tight place. He wants at least to be on the safe side in a 
world so strange and fearsome. It has colored all his 
thoughts and has kept him down to a level far below what 
one has the right to expect of so cultivated a people. 

There is another side to this animistic attitude which is 
even more characteristic. It is ancestor-worship. Men par- 
ticipate with nature in being possessed of spirits which 
make them what they are. Even a living man, Hke the gov- 
ernor of a province who has done well by his people, may be 
deified and be accorded religious rites with no sense of in- 
congruity. But especially men are worshiped after their 
death. It takes the form of the worship of ancestors and 
is so universally practiced and so implicitly believed in that 
it has been looked upon as the very center and nerve of 



2i6 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

Chinese religion. Death in no sense breaks the bond be- 
tween the members of a family. The family consists of its 
dead as well as its living members, and, strangely enough 
to us, the dead members are more important than the living. 
All the arrangements of the household must be made with 
the well-being and the comfort of the dead primarily in 
mind. It is carried to the extent that it becomes an intoler- 
able burden. A most extensive ritual is connected with the 
worship. The funeral must be as elaborate and expensive 
as the family can stand ; frequently they go beyond the 
bounds of reason and plunge into debt. The sacrifices are 
carefully prescribed, and the utmost care is taken to see that 
the mourning and all the other rites are carried out to the 
letter. The choice of a site and the time for a burial are of 
tragic importance, and frequently large sums are squandered 
on Fung-Shui, or "wind and water," doctors, to determine 
the lucky spot for the grave and the propitious time for the 
interment. It may be long delayed, and China presents the 
spectacle of thousands of unburied coffins kept above ground 
for weeks and months by this kind of hocus-pocus. It is a 
bondage from which the Chinese should be freed, but no- 
where is the influence of immemorial custom more evident 
the world over than in the beliefs and practices connected 
with death and burial. 

The ideas that lie back of the practices are the important 
thing. Filial piety is the first of the Chinese virtues. It is 
extended beyond the grave because the dead parent con- 
tinues to be as much a part of the family as before. To all 
the inducements which existed while the parent was living 
to show him reverence and honor is added that of the un- 
canny and mysterious fact that the soul has passed out into 
the unknown land of the shades and may possess powers and 
influence even more potent and surely more incalculable 
than he possessed in life. To the motive of respect must be 
added that of fear. What might not happen to the family 
if the sacrifices were neglected and the shade should be 



THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 217 

deprived of the support which it has a right to expect? 
Above all the other duties that of being married and having 
sons in order to continue the sacrifices down through the 
generations is the most urgent. Mencius, the great follower 
and interpreter of Confucius, declared, "Three things are 
unfilial, and having no sons is the worst." This deeply in- 
grained conviction has driven the Chinese to two prac- 
tices, polygamy and adoption. The effect has been that 
woman has been looked upon as of little value in herself; 
only as she fulfills her function and becomes the mother of 
sons is she considered worthy of honor. In a real sense a 
man's possessions belong to his ancestors, so no living man 
has the right to dispose of what in the final analysis is not 
his. So a daughter marrying out of the family gets prac- 
tically nothing — it belongs to the ancestors and must not be 
taken from them. Shall we call this whole attitude one of 
worship or something of lesser significance? Some have 
said that it is of the same nature as the respect we show our 
deceased loved ones and friends and should not be taken 
too seriously, but when the matter is seen in all its rela- 
tionships there is little wonder that the large majority of 
first-hand investigators have no hesitation in calling it wor- 
ship in the most real sense. As Professor J. J. M. DeGroot 
puts it, a Chinese "may renounce all other gods, but his an- 
cestors he will renounce last and least of all.'" It is not an 
exalted type of worship and is carried on all too often to 
obtain material advantage and welfare. As such it holds out 
no hope that, so long as it remains worship, it can ever be- 
come an uplifting factor in Chinese life. 

The all-prevaiHng animism and ancestor worship which 
have been described do not complete the round of early 
Chinese religion. There is a state religion, based on the 
same principles, but with a very different development. It 
shows the mind of the Chinese in a far better light. Again 
going back to the days before records were kept, the ani- 

' Religion of the Chinese, p. 86. (Macmillan, New York, 1910.) 



2i8 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

mistic attitude of mind laid hold on the greater objects of 
nature, personified them more or less, and raised them to a 
dignity not possessed by the other objects of worship. The 
heavenly bodies, the earth and its subdivisions, and, above 
all, the incomparable heavenly sphere became the great gods 
of China. These objects were not supposed to be worshiped 
by the people themselves. They were restricted to their own 
ancestors. The august worship of the great gods became 
the official duty of government officials, of the governors 
and the emperor. To the last alone was reserved the wor- 
ship of High Heaven, the supreme religious act of Chinese 
religion. It must be remembered, however, that in each 
case the emperor performed the rites not for his own sake 
but on behalf of all the people. He is looked upon as the 
father of those over whom he is set to rule, and as a father 
he worships for them. 

The climax of the whole system is the worship of Heaven, 
performed by the emperor at the capital city on the occasion 
of the longest night of the year. With beautiful suggestive- 
ness it is performed that night because it is when the forces 
of cold and darkness in the world have done their worst, 
the time when again the shortening days cease to become 
shorter and the kindly influences of the sun begin again to 
regain power and give the first promise of the coming glory 
of spring and summer. Here under the open sky, with no 
shelter from the elements, upon a circular terraced marble 
platform, is performed one of the most remarkable religious 
sacrifices known in the whole range of religious history. 
There is a sublimity about the ritual which betokens a high 
conception of its significance. Prayers are offered which 
with little change might be used in Christian churches. The 
worship is offered to Heaven, or Shang-ti. The term "Tien" 
is also used. Some have thought that Shang-ti contains 
more of personal implication than Tien, like the distinc- 
tion we frequently make between "God" and "Providence," 
but others consider the two terms identical. So lofty is the 



THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 219 

conception that ''Shang-ti" has been generally agreed upon 
as the word by which the Christian conception of "God" 
should be translated into Chinese. There is nothing un- 
worthy in the conception in any way. It gives evidence of 
the existence from the earhest times of a noble and uplifting 
view of God and of what he requires of men. What of this 
state religion now that China has ceased to be an empire 
and has declared a repubHc? To make such a declaration 
is relatively easy; it is a far different matter to change the 
fundamental bent of a people's mind. So ingrained is the 
paternal idea that the so-called "president" of the repubHc 
has taken upon himself to act as the "father" of his people 
and conduct the worship of Shang-ti as aforetime. He may 
continue to do so for years to come, since he is still the 
representative of the people, for in China even the emperor 
has always held sway as the Son of Heaven by virtue of 
popular sufferance. 

Confucius and His Contribution 

Confucius lived from B. C. 551 to 478. These dates may 
be depended on as accurate, though scholars are far more 
conservative now than formerly relative to Chinese dates 
before Christ. According to Chinese chronology the country 
was ruled by the model emperors, Yao, Shun, and Yti, about 
twenty-two hundred years before our era. It is not, how- 
ever, until we come to the period of the Chao Dynasty, 
B; C. 1122-256, that definite dates can be assigned with any 
confidence. Confucius lived in this period, when China 
was divided into many small states, frequently at war with 
each other and owning not much more than nominal alle- 
giance to the weak authority of the central government. 
This unsatisfactory condition lasted until the Chao Dynasty 
went to pieces, to be succeeded for a short but memorable 
period by the Chin Dynasty (B. C. 256-205). The one great 
ruler during these years was Shi Huang-ti, who has been 
called the Napoleon of China. He abolished the feudal 



220 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

form of government and cfFectively established a central- 
ized empire in the form which lasted down to the destruc- 
tion of the Manchu power and the setting up of the repub- 
lic in 191 1. He is also to be remembered as the builder of 
the Great Wall, which was intended to be a barrier to pro- 
tect the empire from the encroachments of the wild no- 
madic tribesmen, always watching for the opportunity to 
sweep down on the rich plains to the south. He is also 
remembered by the Chinese with execration because in vain 
conceit he attempted to destroy utterly the classical literature 
and by so doing inaugurate a new era which should begin 
with himself and his period. It may be remarked in passing 
that the name "China" is said to be derived from the name 
of this dynasty, the Chin. 

In the midst of the unsettled days when China was lan- 
guishing for want of a strong central authority, when war- 
fare occupied the attention of the distracted people instead 
of agriculture, when education was neglected and plague, 
pestilence, and famine stalked through the land, Confucius 
was born. His birthplace was in the state of Lu, in the 
western part of the modern province of Shantung. His 
father was an old man of seventy when he married a young 
woman, who soon became the mother of the sage. His lot 
as a young boy was not easy, his father dying when his little 
son was only three. We are able to say with certainty that 
Confucius was married at nineteen and had one son. His 
married life cannot be called a success. He ceased to live 
with his wife after a short time and we hear little more of 
her. His son appears at intervals in the story and seems 
to have become one of his disciples. Early in his career 
Confucius was appointed keeper of the state granaries, then 
guardian of the common lands. For a considerable time he 
was wholly devoted to teaching and labored at a new edition 
of the ancient odes and historical records. When he was 
about fifty he became a magistrate in his native state and 
was promoted until he became what we should call the min- 



THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 221 

ister of justice. His tenure did not last long, but it was 
not on account of his failure or unfaithfulness. In fact, 
he did his work only too well, with the result that the state 
of Lu advanced to a position of commanding importance 
among the states. The prince of a neighboring state was 
full of envious resentment and determined to end the prog- 
ress being made by Lu. He devised a plan as diabolical as 
it was successful. He sent the prince of Lu a present of 
some magnificent racing horses and a bevy of beautiful 
dancing girls. It was too much for the prince of Lu. He 
lost all interest in the welfare of his people and gave him- 
self to pleasure and indulgence. Confucius protested, but to 
deaf ears. He lost his position and was compelled to see 
the work of his hand dissipated before his eyes. 

The sage was so convinced that the experiment he had 
made in his native state might prove of permanent value in 
any state which would earnestly apply his principles that 
he spent the next period of more than twelve years wan- 
dering among the feudal states trying to induce one prince 
after another to let him try his schemes and bring peace and 
order out of the chronic confusion. He never succeeded, 
but with all his discouragements never lost heart and be- 
came pessimistic. He was convinced until the end that he 
possessed the secret of statecraft and could make any king- 
dom prosperous by the sincere cooperation of the ruler in the 
application of his principles. But for one reason or another 
he failed to convince a single prince and was compelled to 
abandon his purpose and return to his native state and his 
early home. There he lived the remainder of his life as a 
private citizen, surrounded by an enlarging circle of admir- 
ing disciples, and completing his literary labors. He 
edited the classical literature which already had a his- 
tory in his time, adding but one comparatively insig- 
nificant portion, the Spring and Autumn Annals, from his 
own pen. There in the year B. C. 478, at the ripe old age 
of seventy-three, Confucius died and was buried. His tomb 






222 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

is well marked at the present time, is visited by thousands 
of pilgrims each year, and is destined, one may surely say, 
to increase in interest, not only among the Chinese but among 
men of every nation as they come to recognize the noble 
example and the high ideals represented by the sage. 

For a hundred years Confucius did not receive the rec- 
ognition which his disciples felt was his due. Then arose 
Mencius, the second greatest of China's sages, and by his 
advocacy and enthusiastic admiration raised his master 
to a pedestal from which he has never been dislodged. In- 
creasingly Confucius has been looked upon as the embod- 
iment of everything good in China, and the hold he has been 
able to secure on the imagination and conscience of the 
Chinese is as complete as could well be conceived. The 
temporary neglect which has followed the recent inrush 
of ideas from the West cannot in the end divorce the Chi- 
nese from their admiration for one who more than any other 
has made China great, and who must play a large part in the 
making of the China which is to be. He understood the 
mind of China, and that mind will not be fundamentally 
altered. With all the changes — and many are needed to 
bring China into line with the needs of the modern world — 
the thought of Confucius must play its part in so far as it 
is the expression of the genius of the Chinese mind. 

What was his contribution? Very little religiously. All 
that has been described as the early religion of the people 
was in full force in his day as it is in our own time. He 
did not condemn it, he did not criticise it, he did not add to 
it — he simply took it for granted. His temper of mind was 
essentially practical; he seemed always to be averse to any 
discussion of spiritual or purely philosophical matters. He 
claimed to be agnostic concerning the next life and the 
world of the gods. His mind was immersed in the affairs 
of this life, with conduct, the development of character, the 
relations of man with man, with the state and all the com- 
plicated affairs of government. On these he considered he 



THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 223 

had an opinion worth while, of which it would be well for 
men, from the ruler to the humblest peasant, to take earnest 
heed. He was a political reformer, and this meant for 
Confucius the organization of society in accordance with 
high ethical principles. Along with this went the most 
careful attention to the culture of the individual self, the 
development of the ideal or superior man. Confucius 
claimed that the principles which guided him in all his 
advice came down out of the past and were as old as the 
eternal hills. He maintained that he was not an originator 
but a transmitter, one who had discovered a mine of wis- 
dom in the practice of the ancients, who stood out in his 
mind as the paragons of all excellence. To conserve what 
had been handed down was to him the sum of all virtue. 
Of all preposterous things the thought that anything new 
could be compared with advantage with the old and the 
tried was the height of absurdity. This tenacious conserva- 
tism, which was rooted and grounded in his deepest nature, 
has had its lasting influence on Chinese thought and 
practice. 

The Confucian ideal of the superior man finds its best 
exemplification in Confucius himself, though he in his mod- 
esty makes no claim to personal attainment of the ideal he 
has described. It is the picture of a dignified and grave 
gentleman, somewhat stooped by study and earnest thought, 
holding himself in perfect and dignified control, allowing 
himself no levity and others no familiarity, ready to offer 
advice to all and seeking by the power of example and ad- 
monition to lead others in the straight and narrow way. 
There is nothing of the free-and-easy so common in the 
West. Every act and every relationship must be carefully 
regulated according to well-thought-out principles. A rather 
unattractive combination, would be the verdict of the typical 
man in our unconventional life. And so it seems as we 
think of the effect it had even in Confucius' own day. It 
must have been somewhat difficult for Confucius' wife to 



224 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

be compelled to get along with a companion in whom every 
impulse to spontaneity was suppressed as a temptation of 
the devil. The one or two conversations which are reported 
between the sage and his son while still in his tender years 
show not the slightest comprehension of boy nature. No 
intimacy could grow up between father and son on the basis 
of such scrupulous formality. He who would regulate 
every action, even to the position to be taken in bed, could 
scarcely win a boy's heart. Yet Confucius himself from the 
time he was a little boy had preferred playing at etiquette 
and ceremonies to the boisterous play of other boys. We 
may smile as we think of a man punctiliously molding his 
Hfe in accordance with a rigid scheme which seems to us to 
be devoid of living interest and practical benefit, but such 
was Confucius, and we cannot withhold our admiration 
when we realize that it was not a vain whim, but the result of 
careful thought and calculated to bring out of life its very 
best. He sincerely desired to be a good man whose ex- 
ample might be followed with only beneficial results by all 
with whom he came into contact. 

In the estimation of Confucius human nature is naturally 
good. The function of rules and regulations is to guide the 
development of the individual in the right channels and 
thus prevent the deterioration which might ensue if the 
wrong course should be followed. A man must depend on 
his own unaided powers to achieve maturity of character, 
but this was not so hard, because of his natural goodness. 
He must seek to develop by the unfolding of his own inner 
nature and thus be true to himself. Confucius was com- 
pelled to recognize that the task was easier for some than 
for others. Some seem to possess the necessary knowledge 
and ability almost intuitively, others learn easily, but must 
nevertheless apply themselves to learn, still others are able 
to acquire knowledge with difficulty, while there are those 
who will not learn, either through indifference or willful 
ignorance. But whatever condition may confront a man, the 



THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 225 

admonition of the sage is to make the very most of himself. 
Religion, it is quite evident, did not enter into his scheme 
of human life. Very Httle prayer would suffice and sacri- 
fice had only a subjective influence. He confessed that he 
could not enter into the meaning of the yearly sacrifice to 
Shang-ti. He did not object to ancestor-worship, because it 
encouraged and enforced the obHgation of filial piety, and 
filial conduct was the corner stone of his system of rela- 
tionships. 

But with all his interest in the development of individual 
character Confucius was primarily interested in society and 
the state. He believed that man could not live alone, but 
that he had relationships which were necessary and inev- 
itable. These relationships came to assume such impor- 
tance that it would almost seem that society and the state 
were more important than the individuals of which they 
were compassed. He worked out a scheme intended to 
cover all the relations of human life. They are called the 
Five Relations, those of Father and Son, Ruler and Sub- 
ject, Husband and Wife, Elder and Younger Brother, and 
Friend and Friend. The significant thing about these 
couplets is that in each case, save the last, the first named 
is looked upon as the superior and the last the inferior, sub- 
servient to the other. Human life is thus stereotyped in a 
rigid balance between those who command and those who 
obey. By inherent right the father, the ruler, the husband, 
and the elder brother possess rights and privileges not to be 
questioned by the other party. It may have rendered society 
static and immovable, which was Confucius' idea, but it 
has been responsible for gross injustice and abuse. When 
one possesses all the rights and privileges and the other none 
that are recognized, society is lopsided and the full develop- 
ment of all its members becomes impossible. 

The state was Confucius' hobby. All his theories were to 
be measured by their value in relation to the state. He felt 
that if the sage and the sovereign could be combined in one 



226 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

person all would be well. Since out of the classical litera- 
ture all wisdom could be drawn, there was obvious advan- 
tage in the sovereign being able to delve in the ancient lore 
and learn its wisdom for himself. One of his greatest doc- 
trines in statecraft was the power of personal example. The 
welfare of the state depended more upon the rectitude of the 
ruler than on any other factor. In fact, the dependence was 
almost absolute, according to many statements in the ancient 
literature. Evil in the ruler means eventually a ruined coun- 
try, and integrity and probity is the first and sure cure for a 
country's ills. It is almost pathetic the lengths to which this 
principle was believed to be applicable. With a great truth 
at its center it laid too heavy a responsibility on a single 
pair of shoulders and failed to take into account the per- 
versity of human nature no matter how good an example 
might be set. Confucius believed in reciprocity as the basis 
of all relationships. He would have men take care not to 
do to others what they would not want done to themselves. 
It has been called the Negative Golden Rule. It is good and 
wholesome as far as it goes, but still it is negative. That is 
the difficulty with the whole system. It lacks in the positive 
heroic features found in the Sermon on the Mount. Con- 
fucius is dignified and cautious and circumspect. He fails 
to throw out a challenge which by its sheer boldness and 
audacity drives a man to dare the impossible and persist 
when everything is against him. 

But Confucianism is also a religion. Temples in which 
the tablets of Confucius and his most noted disciples are dis- 
played are to be found in all the centers and worship is per- 
formed before them as before the tablets of ancestors. The 
sage has in recent years been canonized and recognized as 
one of the authorized objects of divine worship. An attempt 
has been made since the Revolution in 191 1 to have the 
worship made the state religion, but the movement came to 
nothing. It is not along this line that the influence of Con- 
fucius is to be felt in the coming years. His work was to 



THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 227 

provide China with a moral code. He was a sincere patriot 
and will continue to live in the estimation of his people as 
the worthy example of one who saw what China might be 
and bent all his energies to bring that about. All the more 
is he to be honored in that, with no reward and unappre- 
ciated except in his own circle, he never lost faith in his 
country and gladly gave his all for its best good. 

Laocius and Taoism 

"Laocius" is the Latinized form of Lao-tse, just as "Con- 
fucius" is of Kung Fu-tsu, the philosopher Kung. We 
know Httle about his life. He was born in B. C. 604, about 
a half century before Confucius. Once the two met while 
the younger man was on his wanderings from state to state, 
but they could not understand each other — they were so 
utterly different in their whole outlook on life. Laocius is 
said to have been the keeper of the archives at the imperial 
court of the Chao Dynasty. He became more and more dis- 
couraged as he saw everything going to decay, and finally 
resigned and retired. But still he was in the midst of 
the dismay caused by the warring of the feudal states and 
the supineness of the central power, so he determined upon 
an even more drastic step. He started off into exile and 
reached a noted pass in the mountains where the keeper in- 
duced him to put down in writing the philosophy which he 
had worked out and which would otherwise be lost. As a 
result he remained long enough to put into written form the 
Tao Teh King, a writing containing about five thousand Chi- 
nese characters, which he intrusted to the keeper of the 
pass and then passed on and disappeared. This altogether 
too picturesque account can scarcely be received, but it is all 
we know of the story of a very original thinker. 

The Tao Teh King has been translated into English a 
number of times, but so difficult is it to understand and ren- 
der into coherent language that the various translations dif- 
fer almost hopelessly. The difficulty begins in the name 



228 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

itself. Beginning with the last word, King means "writing" 
or "classic," Teh means "duty," "virtue," or "human respon- 
sibility," but what does Tao mean? Many definitions have 
been given, very divergent and in some cases most confus- 
ing. The shortest equivalent has been given as the "way." 
Another is "nature," and still another "Providence." It has 
also been conceived of as the "order of the universe," "the 
rotation of the seasons," and even "time." It may be that 
Doctor Soothill's statement is about as helpful as any that 
can be found. "Tao, then, may be considered as the eter- 
nal and ubiquitous impersonal principle by which the uni- 
verse has been produced and is supported and governed."* 
The aim of the work seems to be to indicate that human 
duty consists in imitating the Tao or "way" of the universe. 
Man then becomes a follower of the heavens in their ma- 
jestic and sublime progress. To learn Tao and imitate it is 
the good to be sought. Now, what Laocius saw as he looked 
out on nature was quiet, humility, and self-effacement, 
placidity, emptiness, freedom from effort. It was the passiv- 
ity of the processes of nature which impressed him, and 
man was to follow nature as closely as he could. He must 
live a life of "inward spontaneity"; he must not be head- 
strong or self-willed; he must be possessed by a "spirit of 
inanition." He must not even teach his doctrines ; they must 
shine for themselves. Is there any wonder that Confucius, 
the apostle of strenuous endeavor, and Laocius, the preacher 
of the gospel of inactivity, should have been incompre- 
hensible to each other? But Confucius has won the day. 
and China has gone with him and not with Laocius. But 
the quietist has had his imitators, too, men who retired 
into the mountains alone and gave themselves to the disci- 
pline of nature. They thought they might by so doing be- 
come etherealized and even enter the company of the gods. 
They fasted, believing that a saint needed no food, and 



'The Three Religions of China, p. 8. 



THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 22g 

became sadly emaciated, and when this did not have the 
desired effect they sought drugs and eHxirs to induce the 
spirituaHzed condition they sought. They thought that by 
absorbing the good in nature they might Hve long and 
even achieve immortality. They practiced breathing exer- 
cises to drink in the good influences of the atmosphere. 
These strange ascetics did not grow in number nor thrive 
greatly. Buddhism was abroad in the land and had a more 
positive aim and a better organized monastic discipline. But 
these seekers after Tao, the true Taoists, had some influence 
in China and helped to bring in the belief in immortality, 
which had been sadly lacking despite the ancestor worship 
which was constantly in touch with another world. 

But this is not what we know as Taoism to-day. The 
modern variety, which still goes under the old name, is the 
most silly jumble of superstitions that can anywhere be 
found. It is the worst side of Chinese religion. There is 
a priesthood, and Taoist temples exist everywhere. The- 
oretically, the business of the priests is to help the people 
live in accord with Tao, but practically it is magic run mad. 
Soothsaying in every imaginable form, by the almanac and 
combinations of lines, by magical religious ceremonies, in- 
cantations, and what not, is carried on by a priesthood which 
has become skillful in working on the superstitious fears of 
the people and by so doing keeping them in subjection and 
terror. The beginnings of Taoism as a formal religion go 
back to one named Chang Tao-ling, who was born in A. D. 
34. He discovered, so it is said, the elixir of immortality, 
founded a priesthood and hierarchy, and set up a state in 
the far western province of Sze-chuan, which was put down 
with much bloodshed. Descended from this ambitious priest 
a line of so-called Taoist popes has come down through the 
centuries to our own time. They have for many years been 
situated far away in an inaccessible mountain retreat in the 
province of Kiang-si. The "pope" does not exercise the 
kind of authority his name would indicate, but he is looked 



230 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

upon as the spiritual center of a system which in its subHme 
beginnings gave promise of a better sequel than the poor 
excuse of a religion it is to-day. 

Chinese Buddhism 

Buddhism exists in China to-day only because it meets a 
felt need. The Chinese are practical and Confucius minis- 
tered to that bent with such insight and wisdom that the 
whole life of the people has been built up around his ideals. 
He did not feel the need of more than the meagerest amount 
of spiritual influence and believed that could be supplied out 
of the religious Hfe which already existed. But he was mis- 
taken. The Chinese have deep spiritual longings and capac- 
ity for mystical religion which many are not Hkely to appre- 
ciate. Taoism so soon descended to the level of quackery 
that all it could do was to trade on the superstitious fears of 
the people. But still there was an unreached depth to the 
Chinese heart which nothing in China had been able to touch. 
This was the opportunity of Buddhism. Coming in its 
Mahayana form with the assurance of being able to bring 
men into vital contact w^ith the spiritual world, the hearts 
of many Chinese were touched. There is no other explana- 
tion of the career of Buddhism in China, where it has per- 
sisted despite the bitterest kind of persecution. The pres- 
ence of a million Buddhist monks and nuns to-day speaks 
eloquently of the hold of the religion on the Chinese mind 
and heart. 

These monks and nuns are scattered widely over the coun- 
try. They are to be found in little temples in the cities and 
villages, but here the conditions are not ideal. The contempt 
in which the Buddhist monk is held in China is to be ac- 
counted for largely by the conduct of these men, who are 
in the world and also unfortunately of the world. Their 
lives are not an example worthy of emulation and have 
brought discredit to the whole brotherhood. We are as- 



THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 231 

sured that many of the monks themselves deplore the con- 
dition. They would not for a moment risk their reputation 
in such company amid such surroundings. To them Bud- 
dhism is a gospel to be sincerely followed. They betake 
themselves to the monasteries where ideals are high and 
where laxity is not tolerated. In such retreats they find 
others likeminded and are able to give themselves uninter- 
ruptedly to meditation and worship. Here are pure souls 
seeking emancipation, who resist wrong-doing and lewdness 
as they would a pestilence, and who are reaching out in every 
way they know how to find the light. 

The monks are divided into various schools or sects. It 
is a difficult subject, on which it has been hard to secure 
correct information. Many of the monks themselves are 
not intelligent and add to the confusion. There have been 
ten principal schools of thought, with subdivisions. Four 
of the ten schools no longer play any part. The six remain- 
ing schools fall into two essentially different groups, and 
between the two the difference is ''profound and radical." 
The members of the first group are the adherents of Ch'an 
tsung, Ch'an meaning ''meditation," and tsung "school" or 
"sect." Doctor Joseph Edkins calls them the "esoteric 
schools." They made inwardness the one needed quality, 
so meditation was the true fulfillment of the Buddhist ideal. 
This school was founded by the Patriarch Bodhidharma. 
He opposed the use of the sacred scriptures and all outward 
ritual. The "inward look" was sufficient. The attempt was 
made to empty the consciousness of every idea. It was to 
be a subjective experience with no objective content; it was 
pure abstraction. Bodhidharma was called the "Wall- 
Gazer," from his habit of looking intently at a blank wall as 
he sought to divest his mind of thought and make it as 
blank as the wall itself. Everything outward was consid- 
ered superfluous, and, in the older writings, even the dis- 
tinction between right and wrong was held to be the imper- 
fection of a lower standpoint above which meditation would 



27,2 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

lift one. A monk thus becomes indifferent to everything. 
This school was split up into five subdivisions, each of which 
became a school or sect. They do not vary greatly, though 
one, the Liu Chi, took the lead and spread all over China 
and even into Japan, where we shall meet it under a dif- 
ferent name. The second group, comprising five of the ten 
original schools, oppose the absolute subjectivism of the 
Chan school and teach the value of objective content in one's 
practice, the importance of ritual and ceremonies, and incul- 
cate the reading of the sacred books. There are differences 
between them, but the important characteristic is the com- 
mon ground which they take in opposing the negative theory 
of their rivals. The divergent views which are expressed 
by western students of the life in the monasteries would indi- 
cate that much investigation is necessary to get at the real 
facts. The charge that moral laxity is prevalent and that 
spiritual Hfe is at a low ebb is met by the statement that 
while that may be the case here and there, the general rule 
is that real moral earnestness and spiritual aspiration exist 
in the majority of these retreats. The very fact that a num- 
ber of the monks themselves feel that they have as a class 
been misunderstood and maligned should lead the candid 
student to give them the benefit of the doubt until a more 
thorough investigation has been made. 

Buddhism is also represented among the people in that 
they come to the temples and have recourse to the monks. 
They know nothing of the distinction between the schools. 
They are taught that there are gods, the loving Amida and 
the merciful Kwan-yin, who will hear their prayers and 
receive their sacrifices. They are also told that there is a 
heaven of bliss which they may attain and dreadful hells 
which they may escape by throwing themselves on the mercy 
of these benevolent beings. This is sufficient. There is no 
message like that in the other religions ; it answers the crav- 
ing and the fear in their hearts. They do not throw over 
their other religious practices in thus coming to a Buddhist 



THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 233 

temple. It has been said* that the several religions of China 
answer to moods in the Chinese soul. Confucianism makes 
plain their duty, Taoism ministers to their superstitious 
fears, and Buddhism opens up the spiritual world and gives 
them the promise of future blessedness. Buddhism has also 
accommodated itself to ancestor worship. It offers prayers 
for the dead and adds its comfort to the friends and rela- 
tives who are concerned about the welfare of their departed 
in the next world. Buddhism exists in China also in many 
lay communities or secret societies, about which not much 
is known. The members try to assist each other on the 
road to salvation. The monastic idea is not insisted on, but 
the five moral commandments of the Buddha must be kept. 
In spite of persecution these societies are very numerous at 
the present time, showing the hunger which exists for the 
message of a spiritual religion. 

Like everything in China, the outward aspect of Bud- 
dhism is dingy and run-down. Here and there repairs have 
been made and at places extensive alterations have been 
undertaken, but in general it is the need of renewing which 
strikes the eye of the visitor. But when this has been said 
one must hasten to express his unbounded admiration at the 
artistic sense and the eye for the appropriate which have 
been displayed in the choice of temple and monastery sites. 
Whether on the rock-bound island of Puto, where the waves 
are never still, or the Little Orphan island which raises its 
sharp crest far above the waters of the mighty Yang-tse 
which surround it, or the lovely stillness of the shaded crest 
of Kushan Mountain near Foochow, it is always the same. 
By an unerring instinct the pioneers of Buddhism in China 
found the places of beauty and claimed them for the prac- 
tice of religion. The Chinese may be practical and material- 
istic, but this is only half the tale. There is a depth to their 
nature which Buddhism has touched, but which still re- 

' W. J. Clennell, The Historical Development of Religion in China, 
p. 13. (Fisher Unwin, London, 1917.) 



234 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

mains unsounded — a love of beauty and a craving after the 
things of the spirit. This is the true China, and some day 
China is to come to her own. 

Suggestions for Further Study 

J. J. M. De Groot, The Religion of the Chinese (New York, 1910). 
One of the clearest of all manuals. 

W. E. Soothill, The Three Religions of China (London, 1913). 
Needed to correct certain statements made by De Groot. 

R. F. Johnston, Buddhist China (New York, 1913). Especially val- 
uable on present-day Buddhism. 

Miles M. Dawson, The Ethics of Confucius (New York, 1912). 
Translations with running comment. 

George Foot Moore, History of Religions, Vol. I, Chaps. I-IV. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 

Shinto 

Japan received her civilization from China. It is not 
known when the influence began to be felt, but the process 
was complete by the end of the seventh century of our era. 
About everything which goes to make up the life of a people 
came to Japan from across the sea, from the mother country 
of all Far Eastern culture. By way of the peninsula of 
Korea these influences were flowing in for several centuries 
until in the end Japan had entered the stream of history, 
and her course can be followed step by step from that time 
to our own. The cultivation of the silk-worm, the language 
and literature of China, the ethical system of Confucius and 
the religion of the Buddha — all these and much else came in 
and transformed Japan into a civilized country. Not, then, 
for the first time in her history did Japan in the nineteenth 
century show an eager willingness to receive from other 
peoples what was necessary for her to take her place by the 
side of the progressive nations of the world. She was only 
doing what she had done before, thus proving her willing- 
ness to learn from others whenever it is to her advantage 
to do so. But by the side of this characteristic must be 
placed another which is just as important if we are to un- 
derstand the meaning of Japanese life and civilization. On 
everything which Japan has ever received from the outside 
she has not failed to put her own stamp. The sign-manual 
of Japan is indelibly attached to all she produces, making 
it her own unique output. There must be, then, a very 
distinctive and tenacious Japanese racial fiber, which, while 
assimilating with avidity all that may be offered, succeeds 

235 



236 Tlfl': RELIGIONS OP' MANKIND 

in giving it a character which no one can mistake. At no 
point is this to be seen to better advantage than in Japanese 
religious development. This makes it incumbent to study 
with care the religious life of the people before the coming 
of religion from China. 

The early religion is known as Shinto. This is itself a 
Chinese word, or two words, both of which we have met 
before. Shin is the same as the Chinese Shen, which means 
''good spirits," while to is the same as tao, the "way," as it 
may be translated for short. The religion, then, is the "way 
of the Good Spirits," or the *'way of the Gods." The equiv- 
alent name in pure Japanese is Kami-no-Michi, Michi mean- 
ing "way" or "road," no being the possessive, and Kami 
meaning the "deities" or "gods." The word Kami is the 
clue to the whole system. It denotes that which is above, 
any power or influence which can accomplish what man can- 
not prevent. It is something he must look up to as possess- 
ing power. There are many Kami, presiding over all the 
phases of life. Thus it is seen that as in all other countries 
the earliest form of religion in Japan was nature-worship. 
The cult was exceedingly simple. Unpainted, unadorned 
v^ooden shrines were the centers of worship. No images 
were to be found in the early day, though the presence of 
the spirits was indicated by fluttering pieces of notched 
paper. A gong above the entrance could be sounded to call 
the attention of the spirits to the coming of worshipers. 
Lustrations preceded the clapping of the hands and the offer- 
ing of the brief prayers. There was no sacred book, no doc- 
trine to be believed, and no code of laws to be followed. Of 
all the religions of primitive peoples none has ever been 
found more simple and unencumbered than the early reli- 
gion of Japan. 

Yet the people were intensely religious. Wayside shrines 
were numerous, and various lesser divinities Hke the Kitchen 
God presided over their home life and the daily task. The 
God of Plenty and the God of Health had their place, as did 



THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 237 

a hundred others, each with its designated function. An- 
cestor worship was everywhere prevalent. To this day no 
Japanese household is complete without its god-shelf with 
the tablets of the deceased before which prayers and sacri- 
fices are ofifered. Another aspect of Shinto which grew up 
in the early period was reverence for the imperial house. 
It was fully developed by the time the continental influences 
had done their work and remains as one of the leading char- 
acteristics of the Japanese to this day. As Dr. G. W. Knox 
happily phrased it, everything in the ancient religion might 
be summed up in the injunction, "Fear the gods and obey the 
emperor." It was "essentially nature worship married to 
the worship of the imperial house. "^ 

A closer glance is necessary at this point. In A. D. 712 
a book was written called the Kojiki, the "Record of An- 
cient Matters," which has been called the Bible of the Jap- 
anese. This was followed in 720 by another work, the 
Nihongi, or "Chronicles of Japan," which covered much 
the same ground, but which showed more of the Chinese 
influence than the earlier volume. The object of the writers 
seemed to be to trace the history of Japan and the imperial 
line back to the very beginnings. We read there of the 
divine beings Izanagi and his wife Izanami, who produced 
many of the Japanese islands as well as the Japanese race; 
also various tales of gods and goddesses, among whom was 
the great sun-goddess, Amaterasu-o-mi-Kami. She ruled 
in the heavens in brilliant light, the highest divinity of the 
ancient pantheon. Not only so, it was her "grandson" Jimmu 
Tenno, who assumed the rule in Japan, so it is said, in B. C. 
660, and inaugurated the line of emperors. Remarkable to 
say, the present sovereign, Yoshihito, is the one hundred and 
twenty-third in direct descent from Jimmu Tenno, the 
grandson of the sun-goddess. We may be quite sure the 
line has not been broken since records began to be kept in 

^ Development of Religion in Japan, p. 66. (Putnam, New York, 
1907.) 



238 TME RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

the fifth century, and how long before that we cannot 
know. Suffice it to say that the Japanese are taught in 
school as the first fact of history that their reigning emperor 
is directly descended from Amaterasu, the sun-goddess. 
Little wonder that patriotism is for them a part of their 
religion and allegiance to the imperial house the highest 1 
obligation they know. ' 

Then came Buddhism and all but swallowed Shinto. It 
would probably have done so had it not been for the reveren- 
tial attachment to the ruling dynasty. This was their most 
tangible connection with the gods, the world of divine power, 
and held them fast during all the centuries. Even though 
through most of their history the emperor has been little 
more than a figure-head so far as the actual rule was con- 
cerned, the Japanese have always looked on him as the rep- 
resentative of the gods, as the final source of all authority. 
This has been consistently recognized in theory even though 
the treatment meted out to the ruler on many occasions 
would seem to belie the fact. Whenever an important act 
had been decided upon by the power in actual control of the 
country the ''constitutional" thing to do was to proceed to 
the imperial palace, lay the matter before his august throne, 
and receive the approbation of the emperor. This continued 
to be done until, in the year 1868, a revolution occurred and 
the emperor was restored, for the first time in many cen- 
turies, to his rightful place as actual ruler as well as theoret- 
ical sovereign of his people. The loyalty which had centered 
in devotion to feudal princes was at once, almost as if by 
magic, transferred to the emperor himself. Undoubtedly 
this could not have been accomplished had it not been that in 
the background of all their thinking there lay implicit the 
thought that the divine representative of the power of heaven 
was in the final analysis the foundation of their lesser loyal- 
ties and might claim the right to their complete allegiance. 

This may be little more than conjecture; what we do know 
is that in the eighteenth century there occurred what has 



THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 239 

been called "The Revival of Pure Shinto." Motoori and 
other scholars began to study anew the ancient literature, 
notably the Kojiki, and came to the realization that things 
were not as they should be. Why should the emperor be 
kept in seclusion in the old capital of Kyoto while Japan was 
being ruled by the family of the Tokugawas in Tokyo? It 
was not so in the early day, that the literature made very 
clear. Other powerful forces were at work and may have 
had more to do with the actual course of events than this 
literary movement, but it at least shows that men were think- 
ing and that it was along this Hne. As it was, the emperor 
was restored and the Japanese have rallied around him with 
a passionate devotion which evokes our admiration and sur- 
prise.- No theory of the ''divine right of kings" is more far- 
reaching and complete than the Japanese. But it goes a step 
further and asserts divinity of the very person of the em- 
peror. He is their divine ruler, and commands their loyalty 
and obedience by a right seldom claimed in all history and 
never in modern times except in the island empire. The 
patriotism of the Japanese may readily be interpreted as 
religion, and in fact is about all the religion many Japa- 
nese have. 

Shinto, then, was saved from almost complete extinction 
by the connection it had with the ruling house. What be- 
came of all the gods and goddesses of the early religion? In 
a comparatively short time after its arrival Buddhism be- 
came the dominant religion and overtopped the simple faith 
of the early days. Pure Shinto remained little more than 
the ritual and ceremonial of the court, in which the people 
were only slightly interested. But we must always remem- 
ber that even a simple faith like Shinto has its roots deep 
down in the life of the people and cannot be torn up and 
thrown away at will. So it was in Japan. The people mixed 
their Shinto and their Buddhism together and the result was 
not altogether incongruous. It was known as Ryobu, or 
^'^ixed/' Shinto. The mixture almost became a compound 



240 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

when by a hap])y thought or a stroke of genius, not to make 
the charge of more sinister motives, a celebrated Buddhist 
priest named Kobo Daishi (A. D. 774) declared that the old 
Shinto deities were in reality incarnations of the Buddhas 
and Bodhisattvas! What they had been worshiping in ig- 
norance of their true greatness he now made known to them, 
and from that day the two religions have lived side by side in 
peace, though it must be said that Buddhism got the lion's 
share and received all the glory. In Japan to-day a Shinto 
and a Buddhist gateway arc frequently found at the entrance 
of the same temple, and inside a Shinto god and a Buddha 
may share the honor and worship of the people. 

Because of its connection with the imperial cult Shinto 
was given a place of honor at the restoration in 1868, but 
declined rapidly, until in 1899 ^^^ priests of the sacred 
shrine at Ise, the shrine dedicated to Amaterasu, the divine 
"god-mother" of the emperors, took steps to make Shinto 
a purely secular organization. Now Shinto is the embodi- 
ment of the spirit of patriotism. It expresses their confi- 
dence "that there is a something more than their present 
strength and wisdom which directs and aids and on which 
they may rely.'" 

The Coming of Buddhism 

The conquest of Japan by Buddhism was not without 
opposition. After the embassy from the Korean king in 
A. D. 552 the new faith had its ups and downs before it 
was able to prove that it possessed larger power and could 
give greater material assistance to the Japanese than their 
indigenous Shinto. When the cause of the new teaching 
had been embraced by the prominent minister Shotoku- 
Taishi (died 621) the opposition ceased and Buddhism was 
accepted as belonging to the country. And when finally 
Kobo Diaishi amalgamated the two faiths by making the 
Shinto divinities incarnations of the Buddhas and Bodhisatt- 

* Knox, op. cit., p. 79, 



THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 241 

vas no question could be raised even by the most scrupulous. 
From that day to this Buddhism has remained the religion 
of the masses of the people. For about three hundred years 
other influences have taken possession of the minds of the 
cultured and Buddhism has been more or less neglected in 
these circles. Still it is the great religious power in the land, 
thoroughly acclimated and with a development which is 
peculiarly Japanese. 

The contrast between Shinto and Buddhism is sharp and 
complete. Shinto is simplicity itself, in the lack of all out- 
ward adornment as well as of inner content. There was 
almost nothing to believe and very little to do in the old 
faith. Buddhism is the exact opposite of all this. It is 
elaborate and complex in every feature. It has temples 
ornate and profusely decorated without and full of images 
and the paraphernalia of worship within. It has its books 
and its ceremonial, its priests with their vestments — every- 
thing we associate with color and form in religion came into 
Japan with Buddhism and made the country over again. 
Art was stimulated and the beauties we associate with Japan 
began to appear. But more than these outward manifesta- 
tions, it was rich in inner content. It opened up a spiritual 
world to the wondering gaze of the simple Japanese. They 
had never dreamed such a world existed, peopled with be- 
ings so magnificent and resplendent that they could not 
but win the awesome reverence of a backward people. The 
hope of immortality became a reality for the first time, and 
contact with merciful gods who were all-powerful yet inter- 
ested in the salvation of men. The imagination was stimu- 
lated and the glories of a paradise presided over by the 
gracious Amida became real. In short, the hitherto unde- 
veloped capacity of the Japanese for all that a spiritual 
religion could supply found its satisfaction in Buddhism. 
It could not be otherwise when the Japanese mind was 
beginning to expand under the influence of the culture from 
the continent. A more satisfying religion was necessary to 



242 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

parallel the enlarging outlook of a new civilization. It was 
fortunate that Buddhism was on hand to fill the need. 

As in China so in Japan, the rise and growth of schools 
or sects became a marked characteristic of the development. 
Some of the sects were introduced directly from China, but 
those which have put a distinctive mark on Japanese Bud- 
dhism were born and grew up in Japan itself. This does 
not mean that they are not related to the Buddhism across 
the sea. Japanese Buddhism has preserved the historical 
continuity of the faith, and even in the sects most distinctive 
of the country the connection with older teachings is close 
and vital. In a number of cases Japanese monks went to 
China and brought back the nucleus of what they embodied 
in their own systems. But it may truly be said that in the 
Japanese sects Buddhism has reached its farthest bound in 
doctrine and practice. Here Mahayana has developed to 
the point of greatest departure from the teaching of Gautama 
the Buddha. The logic of the newer ideas has been carried 
out more consistently than in any other country. The sects 
number about a dozen, but if all the subsects are counted 
the whole list comes to about thirty. The most important 
for our purpose are six in number: Tendai, Shingon, Zen, 
Jodo, Shin, and Nichiren. 

Tendai need only detain us for a moment. It has been 
called the eclectic sect, in its attempt to gather in teachings 
of all sorts, whether one element was consistent with an- 
other or not. Its chief claim to distinction is that of being 
the parent of the other important sects. Out of its great 
establishment on Hiezan, a mountain near Kyoto, overlook- 
ing the beautiful expanse of Lake Biwa, have come a num- 
ber of the great historic leaders of Japanese Buddhism. 
Not satisfied with the doctrinal stand taken by its leaders, 
they withdrew and founded schools of their own, which 
have become more famous than the mother of them all. It 
has had a stormy history. In the days when feudalism was 
in power and monks could be soldiers Hiezan became a ver- 



THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 243 

itable fortress, sending out its armed men to help this side 
and then that in the interminable strife of petty chieftains. 
Finally in the sixteenth century Nobunaga, the dictator, 
suspecting that the monks of Hiezan were against him, made 
an attack, and after bloody fighting cleared the mountain 
and burned every building on it. The sect has never recov- 
ered from this blow, and now peaceful Hiezan is the sum- 
mer home of beauty-loving Japanese and foreigners who 
are glad to escape from the heat of the city. 

Shingon is the offspring of Tendai and was founded in 
806 by Kobo Daishi, whom we have already met. The 
core of his teaching, according to Professor A. K. Reisch- 
auer, is ''that man can even in this present life attain Bud- 
dhahood since he is essentially one with the eternal Bud- 
dha."^ This essential Buddha is Dainichi, in India Vairo- 
chana, one of the Dhyani-Buddhas, early developed in Ma- 
hayana. He is the all, inclusive of everything. The system 
then is clearly pantheistic. Man came from out this all, is 
essentially one with it now, and will be reabsorbed; this is 
what it means to attain Buddhahood. There are two meth- 
ods of attainment, one by meditation and knowledge and 
the other by a righteous life. So there are two worlds, one 
of ideas, "unchangeable and everlasting, having existence 
only in universal thought," the other a world of phenom- 
ena, the world we see and touch. Vairochana is the center 
of both, but, of course, the one is only a seeming world, 
destined to pass away. The real world, everlasting and 
eternal, is the ideal world to which all must attain for final 
salvation. Belief in the efficacy of the magic word, the spell, 
the posture, has worked evil in the sect, partially saved by 
the ideal philosophy on which it is based. 

The Zen, founded in 1191, is by no means the most nu- 
merous of the sects, but it has the largest number of temples. 
It lays the greatest stress on contemplation and meditation, 

' Studies in Japanese Buddhism, p. 94. (Macraillan, New York, 
1917.) 



244 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

thus being somewhat in harmony with the Buddha's way of 
virtue. Like the Shingon, the Zen aims at a divine empti- 
ness. There are in rcahty two selves, one which has the 
world around us as its object and the other which looks 
away into the real world of ideas. Only when one rises to 
the experiences of the higher, true self is he on the road to 
emancipation. The training of the will is of prime impor- 
tance, for no advance can be made without the control of the 
passions and the conquest of the physical desires. It 
trained and hardened the resolution of its disciples and made 
for stoical endurance of the experiences of life. For this 
reason it made a strong appeal to the Samurai of old Japan, 
the soldier-scholars, who better than any others represented 
the ancient spirit. They were taught to laugh at hardship 
and even welcome death without fear or the slightest evi- 
dence of emotion. The practical philosophy of the Zen fitted 
in splendidly with their ideal and gave a religious tone to 
a spirit which otherwise was likely not to rise to a very 
high level. 

With the advent of the Jodo we find ourselves in another 
atmosphere. Founded by Honen Shonin in 1175, it promul- 
gated the doctrine of the Western paradise. This is presided 
over, as we have seen before, by Amida. The way of salva- 
tion is by faith in him, who promises to deliver all those 
who trust in him. But paradise cannot be assured without 
the repetition, times without number, of the Nembutsu, or 
prayer formula, ''Namu-Amida-Butsu." The rosary thus 
becomes an important article, as the prayers are told off one 
by one. Of course, it becomes a meaningless and lifeless 
form, even though merit and a nearer approach to the 
heaven of Amida is the reward of faithfulness in its per- 
formance. Another step must be taken for the ''faith doc- 
trine" to come to its own, and that was accomplished by 
Shinran Shonin, the founder of the Shin sect, who saw the 
line which must be taken. 

This remarkable man had his introduction to Buddhist 



THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 245 

doctrine in the Tendai monastery on Hiezan. Dissatisfied 
with the teaching, he went out determined to seek a more 
satisfying way of salvation. He went to China and trav- 
eled from center to center, and doubtless while there made 
his discovery and formulated his distinctive doctrine. Com- 
ing back to Japan, he founded a new sect in 1224. He gave 
it the name of Shin or Shin-shu, the Pure Land Sect. It is 
also known as the Jodo-shin, the Monto, and the Hong- 
wanji Sect. He built directly on the teaching of the Jodo, 
with its emphasis on the Western paradise of Amida. He 
made much of Amida's vow. It is said that this spiritual 
being, going on to the perfection of Buddhahood, solemnly 
vowed that he would never allow himself the last and crown- 
ing experience so long as men were left below in the world 
of suffering whom he might help. He was still keeping the 
vow and holding out his hands in love to all who would come 
and throw themselves on his mercy. He would give them 
an immediate salvation, the earnest of what was in store for 
them in the great beyond. Shinran was very emphatic that 
there was no other salvation, and that it could be attained 
by faith and faith alone. Here is where he parted company 
with the Jodo. There was no possibility of accumulating 
merit by anything a man might do, not even by repetition of 
the Nembutsu. Only by putting faith in Amida and believ- 
ing that he would receive any who came might a man hope 
for salvation. 

It will repay us to pause a minute to look a little more 
carefully at this way of salvation. In one of the sermons of 
Tada Kanai this passage occurs: "This one name stands 
revealed in the midst of a world of Shadow and Vision, and 
it alone is neither Shadow nor Vision. It is revealed in the 
world, but it belongs not to this world. It is Light. It is 
the Way. It is Life. It is Power. This name alone has 
come down from Heaven, the Absolute and Invisible, to 
Earth, the Finite and the Visible. It alone is the rope which 
can draw us out from the burning fire of pain, and land us 



246 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

safely in a place of pure and eternal bliss."* Even the faith 
which we exercise is not in our own power, but is graciously 
bestowed by Amida. Not even prayer avails; there is no 
merit in any form or ''works" ; it is solely by the mercy of 
the Saviour who looks with compassion on the heart of 
anyone who is willing to trust him. There is no difference 
between the priesthood and the laity. To enter a monastery 
or to practice meditation is as useless to secure salvation as 
it would be to storm the battlements of heaven. 

Where did Shinran get this doctrine? That is a real 
question, as yet unanswered. Professor Arthur Lloyd' spent 
many years of serious study on the question and became 
convinced that Shinran, either directly or indirectly, came 
into contact with Christian teaching in China and adopted it 
as his own. It is clear that we have here the doctrine of 
justification by faith as clearly taught as by Paul or Luther. 
And it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Profes- 
sor Lloyd's conclusion is correct. Nestorian Christian mis- 
sionaries had been in China for several hundreds of years, 
and it would be strange if some fragments at least of their 
teaching should not have penetrated very much farther than 
the direct influence of the missionaries themselves. The 
net result of the investigation to the present time is that 
there may have been this connection, but that it cannot be 
proved. At any time new light may be thrown on the sub- 
ject which will clear away the difficulties and give us a most 
welcome solution. 

But who is this wonderful being Amida in whom men are 
asked so implicitly to place their confidence? Trace him 
back through China to India and there as Amitabha he 
appears as one of the Dhyani Buddhas, or Buddhas of Con- 
templation. In the triple scheme worked out in the early 
Mahayana days we have Amitabha, and under him Ava- 



*The Praises of Amida, trans, by Arthur Lloyd, sermon i. 
' See especially The Creed of Half Japan. (Smith Elder, London, 
1911.) 



THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 247 

lokita, the Bodhisattva of Contemplation, and lastly Gau- 
tama, the earthly manifestation. It is all an imaginary 
scheme whose only sure historic foothold is Gautama, here 
a very inferior being. So men are asked to pin their faith 
on Amida, a figment of the imagination, placed in the heav- 
ens as a Saviour because man felt the need for what such 
a being could offer, but with no assured existence as a reality 
in the true world of spiritual beings. Speaking of the dif- 
ference between Amida and Jesus Christ, Professor Lloyd 
says, "But, the one is an Idea, the other a Person — the one 
a creature of theological Fancy, the other a Being whose 
history is well defined."" But surely the Christ idea was 
present in Shinran's mind, whether he learned it of Christian 
missionaries or not, and some day the Japanese believers in 
Amida may come to see that the true embodiment of their 
ideal and the sure fulfillment of their hopes are to be found 
in the person of Jesus Christ, who unlocked the doors of the 
spiritual world and showed us God our Father. 

The Shin sect is by far the largest and most influential 
in Japan. Shinran was an innovator. Monasticism meant 
nothing to him, so, like Luther, he broke through the bond- 
age and married a wife. Celibacy could bring a man no 
nearer the goal, so he would have none of it, and to this day 
the priests of the Shin sect marry like their parishioners 
and live among men like their fellows. They dress like the 
laity except when attending to their priestly duties. They 
are in close touch with men and are seeking to accommodate 
their practice to the demands of modern life. They are 
opposed to Christianity, but pay it the high compliment of 
copying its methods. Preaching halls have been provided 
and sermons are delivered. Sunday schools are conducted, 
provided with the helps and apparatus of the Christian 
schools, sometimes with a pathetic inabihty to put on the 
original touch which would make them soundly Buddhistic. 
Young Men's Buddhist Associations have been organized 

' Praises of Amida, p. 150. 



248 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

ill various cities, and a periodical literature attempts to meet 
the intellectual needs of the alert young students and the 
cultured men and women. They are a force to be reckoned 
on, with an enormous following, and a readiness to make 
almost any move to meet the new situations as they arise. 

We have one more sect to mention, the Nichiren. It was 
founded by a remarkable man of that name in 1253. He was 
scandalized at the neglect which was being shown the per- 
son of the historical Gautama, and washed to reinstate him 
in his rightful position. The Jodo and the Shin, recently 
formed, had almost entirely neglected the great founder and 
had placed other deities in his place. But Nichiren taught 
that Gautama the Buddha was to be taken mystically. "The 
true Buddha is a greatness permeating all being, the great 
illumination we must find in ourselves."^ What is to be 
gained by a return to the historical Buddha when he is not 
to be taken historically is a question. The system of Nichi- 
ren is purely pantheistic. The sect has been noted in Japan 
for its vigorous opposition to all rival sects and other reli- 
gions. It condemns Buddhist sects which preach a different 
doctrine almost as violently as it does Christianity. It will 
not appear on the same platform with any other sect, but 
prefers to go its own noisy way, fighting here and fighting 
there wherever an enemy appears. But with all its mis- 
directed zeal the movement seeks to follow the example of 
its founder, who was one of the most picturesque person- 
ages and noblest patriots Japan has ever known. Living in 
a time when the country was in danger of an invasion by 
the hordes of Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor of China, 
Nichiren was the prophet of preparedness and had much to 
do with the vigorous and successful defense which kept the 
invader from landing on the sacred shores. Several times 
he was exiled for patriotically resisting the evil counsels of 
men in power. His life was in danger, but with singleness 
of purpose he went his way, seeking to lead men aright both 

^ H. Hackmann, Buddhism as a Religion, p. 292. 



THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 249 

politically and spiritually. He died far away in the moun- 
tains of Central Japan, in a little shelter he had built for 
himself away from the confusion of a troubled time. The 
inspiration of his name is still powerful as the story of his 
unselfish devotion to native land is recounted in story 
and song. 

So much for the sects, to one or another of which the 
people belong. They are not concerned about the philosophy 
of the sects; they call the priests in to officiate in times of 
need, and give themselves to such performances as are pre- 
scribed. When it is remembered that Buddhism is the reli- 
gion of the village people who comprise eighty per cent of 
the entire population, it is easy to see that it is the religion 
par excellence of the Japanese. One of the most unfortunate 
facts about Buddhism is suggested by the different attitudes 
of the intelligent and the ignorant masses toward its doc- 
trines. The inner teaching cannot be understood by ninety 
per cent of the people. To them the higher, the essential 
teaching is not offered. An accommodated doctrine, suited 
to their understanding, where symbol is used instead of idea, 
is about all they can take. *'The esoteric teaching may have 
to do with self -identification with the absolute, while the 
popular preacher talks of a materiaHstic Hell and Heaven.'" 
Is one consistent with the other? If it is, no one could 
object to the attempt to reach the heart of the people by 
language and figures they can understand, but, when the 
Japanese themselves feel, as many of them do, that there is 
a real discrepancy, the palpable insincerity of the whole 
method is a serious bar to its acceptance by those who are 
looking for both light and reality. 

Again Buddhism has been paying a high price for its mili- 
tant interference in affairs of state during the Middle Ages. 
The Tokugawa rulers, who assumed control late in the six- 
teenth century and retained it until the restoration in 1868, 
curtailed the aggressiveness of the sects and reduced them 

'Knox, Development of Religion in Japan, p. 120. 



250 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

to comparative impotence. The religion lost the hold it 
had on the gentry and became more exclusively what it 
had always been and is to-day, the religion of the common 
people of the country. It is dependent for support entirely 
on free-will offerings. A new earnestness is apparent, par- 
ticularly in Shin-shu, which has become interested in the 
condition of Buddhism in Korea and China and is stimulat- 
ing by visitations and gifts the reclamation of decaying in- 
stitutions and the inauguration of new enterprises to make 
the faith again the fresh and vital force it was in the old 
days of its missionary zeal. It is too early as yet to estimate 
the real power lying back of the movement. 

The Adoption of Confucianism 

Buddhism did not provide a moral code for the masses 
of the people ; it had rules and regulations only for the 
monks and the priests. But at the same time Buddhism 
came into Japan the teachings of Confucius also made their 
way from the mainland. With what has already been said 
concerning Confucius and his system we are prepared to 
learn of its reception in Japan and of the development which 
it underwent. For when the Japanese mind had finished 
its work on the Confucianism which came from China it was 
a very difTerent thing. It was compelled to fit into the Jap- 
anese mold, and in doing so received an impress which would 
have caused the sage to shudder with horror. The condi- 
tions in Japan were entirely different from those in China. 
Confucius based all his practical injunctions on the family. 
The first relation was that of father and son. But in Japan 
it was somewhat different. The first relation was, rather, 
that of ruler and subject. The state is first; loyalty, and 
not filial piety, is the first virtue, though filial piety is of 
supreme importance. 

In China, again, peace is the great desideratum and the 
scholar the first man in the social scale. The men who pro- 
duce are put first, and the scholar is a producer of the high- 



THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 251 

est and finest sort. The soldier, on the other hand, is looked 
on as a destroyer, and as such is put down to the lowest 
plane, beneath the farmer, the artisan, and the merchant. 
In China the emperor ruled as the Son of Heaven so long 
as he ruled in accordance with the principles of virtue and 
benevolence. He might forfeit his right to the throne and 
cease to be considered the Son of Heaven by unseemly con- 
duct, provided, of course, the aggrieved people could find 
a leader to organize them for victory, sweep the old tyrant 
from the throne, and take the place himself as the accredited 
ruler of the people. The voice of the people was in a real 
sense the voice of God. Dynasty after dynasty in China has 
been hurled from the throne by just this process. The 
Chinese theory has been given in order to make clear the 
situation in Japan, which is just the opposite. The emperor 
is the Son of Heaven by right of descent from Amaterasu 
— such was the theory. But, more practically, he ruled by 
right of conquest and the power of the sword. He or his 
ancestors had won the first place in the land and intended 
to maintain the position against all comers. When the tra- 
dition had been estabHshed and the descent of the ruler from 
the gods could be assumed the day was won. But it can 
readily be seen that the whole theory was different from 
that of China. The imperial family must be secured on the 
throne at any price; peace, then, was of secondary impor- 
tance, and has never been looked upon as a particularly desir- 
able thing in Japanese history. As a consequence the sol- 
dier became the first man in Japan, and underneath were 
ranged the farmer, the artisan, and the merchant, in that 
order. By an interesting turn the soldier was also the 
scholar. The uniting of these two characters, which are 
separated by the whole width of the social scale in China, 
in one individual is one of the unique features we find pecu- 
liar to Japanese life in the old regime. 

Now, what happened when the Confucian ideal was 
brought into contact with a condition as strange to its essen- 



252 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

tial genius as this? The resulting Confucianism could 
scarcely be recognized as such. Confucius was honored by 
an acceptance of his system, but so changed that he would 
hardly have recognized it as his own. Several of the essen- 
tial notes of his system had been obliterated and his ideals 
had been bowed out of court. There gradually developed 
out of the transformation which took place a new code 
which was admirably fitted to the feudalism which prevailed 
in Japan until 1871. In China, as we remember, feudalism 
had been abolished in the year B. C. 221, but even then it 
was not a feudalism Hke that of Japan. The code was 
called Bushido, Bushi meaning ''warrior" and "do" being 
another form of the '*tao," with which we have become 
familiar. Here it might again be translated the "way," 
making the whole word mean "The way of the warrior." 
Much has been written about this old code — "Code of Hon- 
or" we might call it — in praise and admiration. It deserves 
about as much praise and condemnation as the old code of 
the gentleman, with its dueling and its oversensitiveness on 
questions of honor, which lasted so long in this country, par- 
ticularly in the South. Its great virtue was loyalty — every 
thing turned on this. A man must sacrifice everything to 
loyalty, usually to his feudal lord. Life itself was of little 
value compared with firmness and steadfastness in his 
allegiance. It applied equally to the gentle women in Japan, 
who were taught to sacrifice everything, even their honor, 
if by so doing they might exhibit necessary loyalty in a time 
of danger or crisis. Japanese literature is full of examples 
of men and women who forfeited their all for the cause of 
their liege-lord. Loyalty to parents was also included; in 
fact, loyalty in every relationship where it might be called 
into play. There was httle chance for the development of 
personality, the individual counted for almost nothing. 

Other sides of Bushido will throw it into bolder rehef. 
Coupled with loyalty were hardness and stoic indifference 
to suffering and loss and death. Simplicity was admired in 



THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 253 

adornment and taste. Frugality in food and clothing be- 
came a rule; the Samurai came to loathe money; to him it 
was literally ''filthy lucre." Laconic in speech, courtly in 
manner, reserved among friends and dignified at all times, he 
led a life which had been forced into a rigid mold with little 
opportunity to relax and be his natural self. Never appear- 
ing in public without his two swords, he was inured to the 
thought that at any time he might be called on to use either 
or both, the keen long blade on an enemy and the short 
dirk on himself. For in Japan suicide was raised to the 
position of a virtue, if performed to escape an ignominious 
death at the hands of an enemy or if no other way remained 
to vindicate one's honor. Is there any wonder the sword 
was called "The Soul of Samurai"? Is there any wonder 
the Japanese are fierce fighters and that martial virtues are 
still held in such high esteem among them ? 

Such was one side of Confucianism when it had become 
domesticated in Japan — but there is another. The Chinese 
classics and the ethical system contained in them were 
being studied with deep insight. Confucian ethics is not 
utilitarian. It is based on the profound conception that be- 
hind our work-a-day world there is another in which what 
we strive to attain in moral conduct is an immanent prin- 
ciple. The ethical system we seek to follow is an essential 
part of the eternal nature of things and as such there is a 
binding quality to its obligation which no merely utilitarian 
system could command. This thought stirred the soul of 
men here and there and a literature grew up which rooted 
ethics in the very heart of a universe which in its inner es- 
sence is righteousness. To be righteous ourselves is to 
express in time and under mundane conditions what the 
universe was expressing in the solemn majesty of its mighty 
processes. This solemnized many a man and led him to 
reverence the universe of which he was a part. It became 
a religion for many who were not to be satisfied with the 
philosophy and practice of Buddhism. As might be ex- 



254 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

pected, there could be no propaganda, no enthusiasm estab- 
hshing a kingdom, but the calm dignity of a quietism. Men 
lived carefully, but, more than that, they felt hushed in the 
presence of a world-order which was the embodiment of all 
they admired and could respect. This high type of Con- 
fucianist theory could only be the cherished possession of 
a few. Yet it was and still is the inner groundwork of 
belief of conservative men who have not been able to ally 
themselves with any of the aggressive religious organiza- 
tions which are seeking to win the allegiance of Japan. 

And now again in Japan the question arises. What of the 
future ? For the second time in her long history Japan has 
reached out her arms to take all she needs and can assimi- 
late of a civilization and culture to which she has until recent 
years been a complete stranger. We have no way of deter- 
mining what course the old religions would have taken had 
Japan been left to herself any more than a would-be prophet 
could have predicted what would have become of Shinto 
just before the influences from the continent began to flow 
in during the fourth or fifth century. Japan is to be a new 
Japan, but of one thing we may be sure: no flooding of the 
country by influences from without can obliterate the ten- 
dencies that are distinctively Japanese nor prevent the mod- 
ification of the new material in accordance with the essential 
genius of the people. 

Western science is doing its deadly work with the ancient 
superstitions. The old myths, legends, cosmologies, and tra- 
ditions, both Shinto and Buddhist, are doomed, the only 
immediate hindrance at one point being the pressure of a 
false patriotism which as yet is winning the victory over 
historical truth in not permitting any statement to be made 
which might discount the initial claim of the royal house to 
be descended from the gods. But it is only a question of 
time when, with universal elementary education and the 
higher schools attended by an increasing proportion of the 
most eager young minds, none of the old superstitions will 



THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 255 

have any appreciable hold on the people. When that day 
comes what will be the religion of the Japanese? 

Can Buddhism be reinterpreted in the light of modern 
thought so as to hold the intellect of young Japan? If not, 
it must gradually lose its hold on the masses. The modern 
world is a single community in which every class must take 
its part and share the burden. What we do actually see 
on every hand is great uncertainty and confusion. Even 
the common people feel it and can be attracted by such 
emotional off-shoots of Shinto as Tenrikyo and Remmonkyo, 
both led by uneducated enthusiasts, peasant women pro- 
fessing to heal the body as well as minister comfort to the 
soul. On the other hand. Buddhism has not been able to 
hold the young intellectuals, as a census taken at the Im- 
perial University in Tokyo a few years conclusively dem- 
onstrated. Of about five thousand students four thousand 
five hundred, in round numbers, returned answers to the 
effect that they were either atheists or agnostics ! 

The Japanese leaders are deeply concerned. In 19 12 the 
Department of Education officially summoned what came 
to be known as the Three Religions Conference, so called be- 
cause it was composed of representatives of Buddhism, 
Shinto, and Christianity. Education alone, said the officials 
of the Department, was not able to build up the morality 
which must be the foundation of a great state. Religion 
must do its important work, for moraHty without religion 
was a rope of sand. Could the government count on the 
hearty cooperation of the various religions represented to 
do their part in the building up of the Japan that was to be? 
Such was the final request of the government in a mem- 
orable conference. What can Shinto do besides stimulate 
the patriotism which already has proved itself quite suffi- 
cient to make men willing to dare and to die? What can 
Confucianism do more than it has done in inculcating a 
code which has had its day, and which on careful exam- 
ination scarcely seems strong enough to bear the weight of 



256 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

the new social problems and to emancipate the individual 
who is coming to feel the supreme value of human per- 
sonaHty? What can Buddhism do unless it succeed far 
better than it now gives promise of doing in reaching the 
intellect and heart of young Japan in search after a satis- 
fying philosophy and a moral dynamic sufficient to meet the 
temptations and trials of Hfe? Is there a call for Chris- 
tianity? Such is the view of many prominent leaders, not 
Christians themselves, who see little or no hope in Japan's 
own religious heritage and who are compelled to look in 
the only other direction they know. It is an opportunity 
and a challenge unsurpassed in all the history of our faith. 

Suggestions for Further Study 

George W. Knox, The Development of Religion in Japan (New 

York, 1907). 
August K. Reischauer, Studies in Japanese Buddhism (New York, 

1917). 
W. G. Aston, Shinto (The Way of the Gods), (London, 1905). 
George Foot Moore, History of Religions, Vol. I, Chaps. VI, VII. 



CHAPTER X 
JUDAISM 

The Religion of the Semites 

Of the sons of Noah, as given in the tenth chapter of 
Genesis, the first is Shem. The classification of peoples 
which follows is partly genealogical and partly geographical, 
the ''sons" of Shem, Ham, and Japheth being a Hst of 
peoples and nations known in the period when these records 
werewritten. The immediate "sons" of Shem are said to be 
the Elamites, the Assyrians, the Lydians of Asia Minor, the 
widely scattered Aramaeans, and Arpachshad, which Canon 
Driver takes to mean "the supposed ancestor of the Kas- 
dim/' or Chaldaeans, who became "the ruling caste in Baby- 
lonia.'" Shem is also called "the father of all the children of 
Eber,"' which is intended to indicate the tribes of Arabia, 
mentioned in Gen. lo. 25-30, and the children of Abraham, 
the IsraeHtes, Ishmaelites, Midianites, and Edomites. This 
enumeration roughly corresponds to the modern classifica- 
tion of the Semitic peoples, but at the same time dififers in 
several important particulars. The Lydians are not now 
listed among the Semitic peoples, while the "sons" of 
Canaan, who is put down in Genesis as one of the sons of 
Ham, are now universally recognized as of the same racial 
stock with the Hebrews and Arabs and their Semitic breth- 
ren in the Mesopotamian valley. We know them as the 
Canaanites, the Phoenicians, and the Amorites in historic 
times. In general they fall into two great divisions, the 
Northern and the Southern Semites. The home of the 



* Commentary on Genesis, p. I28f. (Methuen, London, 1913.) 
'Gen. 10. 21. 

257 



258 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

Southern branch is Arabia and that of the Northern the great 
expanse of desert and fertile land lying to the north of 
Arabia between the mountains of Persia on one side and the 
Mediterranean on the other. But it is to be remembered that 
the original home of all these peoples was Arabia, the cradle 
of the Semitic race, which from time to time has poured out 
into the adjacent lands groups of its people too hard pressed 
by the rigors of a barren land, which is barely able to support 
a limited number of nomads and a still smaller number of 
dwellers in towns and cities. 

Semitic civilization was essentially nomadic and in Arabia 
retains this trait to the present time. They were divided into 
many small tribes and lived an exceedingly simple life. 
When they gave up the nomadic life, as they did when they 
emigrated from their age-long home, the same exclusiveness 
expressed itself in the founding of small city states. In his 
characterization of the Semitic type Professor J. F. Mc- 
Curdy makes these statements: ''Long-continued, intense 
activity, within a wide yet monotonous and secluded terri- 
tory, was the habit of this unique people. Such a habit of 
necessity produces men eager, impulsive, and intense, but 
narrow and unimaginative. Such were the prehistoric 
Semites, and such the Semites of history. Rehgious, for 
the most part, rather than moral; patient, resolute, endur- 
ing, brave, serious; faithful to friends, implacable toward 
foes — they have borne the stamp of tribalism all through 
their history. . . . Not looking far around them, they have at 
times seen all the farther beyond and above them. And 
when it has been given them to see straight and clear, they 
have beheld 'unspeakable things, which it is not possible for 
a man to utter.' But they are apt to see only one thing at a 
time, and so in their judgments of men and things they were 
exclusive, partial, and extreme."' To these intense Semites 
men are either good or bad, and they themselves in their 
contact with other peoples seem to have exemplified, as Pro- 

• Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, Extra Volume, "Semites." 



JUDAISM 259 

fessor McCurdy suggests, one or the other of these two 
extremes, being either a blessing or a bane wherever they 
have gone. 

Among the Semites the clan was the social unit. This 
helps us to understand the exclusiveness of Semitic reHgion. 
Each clan had its own god who was always considered the 
father or ancestor of the clan and its peculiar possession. 
A man was born into the religion of his clan and would as 
little think of changing his allegiance to another god as he 
would think of changing his name or his family. The god 
was with his people in all their enterprises; his interests 
were bound up with theirs. Then, too, the gods had juris- 
diction over particular territories, those in which their people 
lived, and it was very difficult, if not impossible, for a god 
to exert his influence away from his own country. In the 
biblical narrative we find Naaman carrying away a little of 
the soil of Palestine in order to be able to worship the God 
of Palestine far away in Syria.* There were as many gods 
as there were clans, and when one clan conquered another 
the victorious god became the lord over the vanquished 
people. In this case, however, the worship of their old god 
did not cease, even though he had not been able to dehver 
them out of the hands of their enemy. Thus there came 
to be more than one god in a given territory until in the end, 
as in Babylonia, there was a pantheon with one great god 
supreme over the others. 

All religious acts were clan acts, the god being worshiped 
at the particular place where he had manifested his power. 
Here was placed his symbol, frequently a stone, to which 
was applied the blood of the sacrifice. In this way the 
blood was brought near the god, and the god and his people 
symboHzed their blood-relationship. Worship, then, was 
the renewal of the blood-bond. This was succeeded by a 
common meal, the god participating with his worshipers in 
the festivities. Religion was very simple and happy. The 

*2 Kings 5. 17. 



26o THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

thought of sin had not arisen to clear consciousness to stand 
between the deity and his people. The identity of interests 
between them was not questioned. The individual as an 
individual could not be said to have come into being — every 
act was that of the community, and the interest of each indi- 
vidual was swallowed in the larger interest of the whole 
group. Much of this is common to other forms of early 
religion; what is distinctively Semitic is its exclusiveness 
and humanness. The god takes his name from a human 
relationship. He is ''master" or ''lord" or "king," and he 
holds this relation to no people other than his own. 

The after-life meant little to the Semites. The perpetuity 
of the clan was looked for and enjoyed in prospect. Indi- 
vidual men continued to exist, but it was a shadowy exist- 
ence in a somber underworld with nothing bright or attract- 
ive to hold out hope of anything to be compared with the 
joy of the present life. Every delineation was repelling, 
enough to make a man shudder at the very thought of such 
a possibility. Religion had to do with this Hfe, and when 
men passed into the great beyond they left the world of 
gods as well as of men behind them. Rather than think of 
themselves as individuals in the dreary world of shades 
their minds were filled with the prosperity of the clan as 
it continued to exist down through the years. A man was 
happy if he had many children in whom he might feel that 
he, too, was to have part in the deeds of the clan and share 
its joy and well-being. Semitic religion, centering in the 
clan and not in the family and household, as was the case 
among the Indo-Europeans, did not develop ancestor wor- 
ship. This statement may be a little strong, for there are 
evidences of some phases of family religion as contrasted 
with clan religion among the Semites, but it is essentially 
true and brings out in sharp contrast the difference between 
the two conceptions and the two forms of social organiza- 
tion, which determined so largely the history as well as the 
religion of the peoples involved. 



JUDAISM 261 

The Heritage of the Old Testament 

The people whom we know as the Hebrews or Israelites 
became a separate people during the period following the 
exodus from Egypt, which occurred about the year B. C. 
1230. On this ''birthday of the nation" a number of Semitic 
tribes who had been in Egypt for many years and had there 
suffered severe hardships broke loose and began to make 
their way toward their future home in Palestine. They were 
under the guidance of a leader named Moses, who proved 
to be one of the world's greatest heroes and nation-builders. 
He guided them to a mountain in the wilderness in the penin- 
sula of Sinai where, not many months before, he had come 
to know the name of a wonderful God, who appeared 
to him "in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush,'" and 
who called him to go back and lead out his people from 
Egypt. He had undoubtedly been known to at least some of 
the people before, but, however that may be, the account in 
Exodus would indicate that he came as a new revelation to 
Moses and the Israelites when they came into the region of 
Sinai. This God Yahweh, or Jehovah, as we have incor- 
rectly transliterated it, seems to have been a God closely con- 
nected with the volcanic mountain near which Moses kept 
the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro. He manifested him- 
self in thunder and lightning and storm, a '*God of battles," 
who fought for his people and led them on to victory. True, 
this is not the conception we get of Jehovah in the prophets 
and the psalmists of a later age, but it is necessary to remem- 
ber that it was by gradual stages and only after a long devel- 
opment that the idea of God became what we see it to be in 
Jeremiah and Isaiah. Yahweh was to these early tribesmen 
the divine Being who had his residence in the sacred moun- 
tain and who was wilHng to become their special protector — 
they had not risen to the sublime heights of the monotheism 
of a later day. 

' Exod. 3. 2. 



262 THE RFXIGIONS OF MANKIND 

The relation between this God and his people was based on 
a covenant or agreement. This covenant was not founded 
on blood-relationship, as though Yahweh was bound to them 
by the indissoluble bonds of kinship; it was far freer and 
more voluntary than that. The covenant was a mutual 
agreement or contract in which each side assumed certain 
obligations which it was bound to carry out so long as the 
other party to the contract remained true and loyal. And 
when it is remembered that this agreement was morally con- 
ditioned its uniqueness and greatness become evident. The 
conditions laid down, which the people of Israel were bound 
to recognize and obey, demanded of them rigid adherence 
to moral principle. Here lay the possibility of the moral 
and spiritual advance which marks Judaism as the religion 
of which more could be expected than of all the other reli- 
gions of the ancient world. This covenant was interpreted 
in ethical terms more and more as the centuries passed until 
Jeremiah could affirm that the covenant was no longer to be 
considered as an outer law written on "tables of stone," but 
as an inner law, a spiritual principle, written in the hearts of 
men. But in the early day everything was crude. The 
presence of Yahweh w^as assured by the outward symbol 
of the ark of the covenant, which was taken from place to 
place, which went before them into battle, and which must 
be protected on pain of losing the divine help and presence. 

When these people with their desert training came into 
the land which had been promised they ran the great danger 
of fusion with the peoples already there and of losing the 
distinctness of their covenant relation with Yahweh. The 
book of Judges shows how great this peril really was. They 
had been nomads living a wandering life in the open and 
free desert; now they began to accustom themselves to the 
more settled life of agriculture, and this meant a change in 
all their habits and ways of looking at things. And since 
they were learning so much from the Canaanites, among 
whom they settled and who were never driven out com- 



JUDAISM 263 

pletely, was it not to be expected that they might absorb 
much of their rehgion? This was the great danger, a 
danger seen in its true light when we know the kind of 
religion it was, with licentiousness and cruelty practiced in 
the very temples of the gods. Yahweh was looked upon as 
the "Lord" of their land, but the gods of other peoples and 
lands were recognized as having their territory and people 
too. An interesting incident is recorded of David,^ when 
he reasons with Saul, urging him not to drive him out of 
the land of Yahweh, on the ground that such an act on Saul's 
part would virtually mean that he sends David out of the 
territory of Yahweh and says, "Go, serve other gods." 

During all this period the religion was saved from absorp- 
tion by the judges and the guilds or "schools" of prophets, 
which were bands of patriotic men who kept alive in the 
people their loyalty to the God who had been with them and 
dehvered them so often. Strange, wild men they were, as 
the narrative in Samuel indicates, but they accomplished 
their purpose, and must be judged by this accomplishment 
rather than by our judgment as to what a prophet or spirit- 
ual leader ought to be. The founding of the monarchy under 
Saul and its extension under David and Solomon gave ma- 
terial assistance in the same direction. But even then the 
worship was crude and undefined, being conducted at many 
shrines, the old centers of Canaanitish worship, and contain- 
ing elements which must be put aside as the spiritual per- 
ceptions of the people became sharpened. This took place 
under the inspiration of prophetic leaders who began to 
appear even before the division of the kingdoms and who 
in the end ushered in a new era of religious history. 

Elijah stands out as one of the great commanding fig- 
ures in the history of religion. In his time again the danger 
of serious contamination by contact with the Baal wor- 
ship of the Phoenicians menaces the people and their reli- 
gion, and Elijah suddenly appears as the heroic patriot who 

"i Sam. 26. 17-19. 



264 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

is not afraid to use the most drastic measures to prevent 
the threatened corruption. He is a man of action, adding 
Httle or nothing to the rehgious conception of his people. 
That was left to the remarkable group of men who, appear- 
ing first in the eighth century, took the ideas of religion 
already in the possession of the Hebrew people and refash- 
ioned them into the sublime faith which was worthy to be 
the foundation of the teaching of our Lord and the writers 
of the New Testament. When Amos came into the city of 
Bethel and proclaimed the judgment of the God of Israel 
on all the nations round about and on Israel and Judah 
as well, a new day had dawned. True monotheism, founded 
on God's right to judge all peoples on the basis of a single 
moral standard, began to come to its own, and in the hands 
of Jeremiah and Isaiah and the gifted though unknown 
"Evangelist of the Exile'' received a statement so complete 
and so sublime that ever after and to this day men have 
been compelled to go back to these inspired utterances to 
drink in the full meaning of the unity of God and his 
ethical character. This is the great gift of the Jewish people 
to the religious life of the world, a permanent possession 
which can never be superseded. This is the priceless heri- 
tage of the Old Testament to Judaism and to the whole 
subsequent religious development of the human race, what- 
ever its final form may be. 

The Messianic hope, the universalism of the prophets, 
the development of the Law, the spiritual experience of the 
psalmists, the wisdom of the wise men, the apocalyptic 
vision — these and other features of the Old Testament rev- 
elation have not and cannot be mentioned. All that has been 
attempted has been to trace, and that with extreme brevity, 
the development of the central message, the supreme gift of 
the Old Testament to the progress of religion in the world. 
The belief in one God who hates sin and loves righteousness, 
a belief which the Jew has never been tempted to forget 
since the days of the Babylonian exile, is the indispensable 



JUDAISM q6s 

foundation on which any faith which claims to be universal 
must be built. 

Judaism Since the Time of Christ 

The Jews have no country they can call their own, yet 
they are at home everywhere. This ubiquitous people has 
been dispersed over all the world and no civilized land is 
without its representatives. Despite the great longing which 
has possessed their souls to return and be a nation once 
more in Palestine there is little likelihood that the Jew will 
cease to be a part of the nationality of the countries to which 
he has gone. The capture of Jerusalem by General Allenby 
and the opening up of the country to settlement by Jews 
under a stable government will attract many of the race, 
particularly those who have undergone bloody repression in 
eastern Europe during recent years, but will probably not 
result in diminishing the number of Jews in the countries 
where they have prospered and have been given rights as 
citizens of the land. Since the days of the Babylonian cap- 
tivity they have been a scattered people ; the destruction of 
the temple in Jerusalem and the final loss of nationality 
drove them out into every corner of the world. 

Their history has been a sad one. Success has attended 
their commercial ventures, but unfortunately they have been 
the prey all too often of avaricious princes and kings. Dis- 
liked by almost all the peoples among whom they have set- 
tled, they have been driven off by themselves into ghettos 
where for hundreds of years they have lived a life apart. 
Not satisfied by such treatment, the populace and their 
leaders have frequently vented their rage in the bitterest per- 
secution, and too often this has been done in the name of the 
Christian religion. The enmity between Jew and Christian 
dates back to the first century and continued unabated 
through the Middle Ages and well down into modern times. 
In the days of their weakness the Christians were the ones 
to suffer at the hands of the Jews or at their instigation, 



266 THE RELIGIONS OE MANKIND 

but the tables were soon turned and the growth of Christian- 
ity and its assumption of power boded ill for the Jew. This 
unchristian enmity has continued to our own time. While 
for the most part persecution has ceased and the Jew has 
come to his own in western Europe and America, the feeling 
of despite and hatred is still too frequently to be found. In 
eastern Europe, however, the situation has been far different. 
There cruel persecution has been felt in recent days, while 
the bloody pogroms in Russia attest the intensity of the 
hatred which still dominates the masses and even the offi- 
cials, who are frequently responsible for the horrible out- 
breaks. We have good reason to believe that such experi- 
ences lie in the past and that the security which the Jew en- 
joys with his fellow nationals in other countries \w\\\ soon 
be extended to every land where he has made his home. 
With more Jews living in the world to-day than at any other 
time in their whole history the future would seem to be 
bright as they face with vigor and enthusiasm the years 
to come. 

It was exceedingly unfortunate that for so many centuries 
the Jew should have been compelled to live with little inter- 
course with the Gentile world. Not only was the European 
intolerant; the Jew was clannish and narrow; he preferred 
to live his life alone. But since the liberating days of the 
French Revolution they have broken through their isolation 
and begun to share the life of the people around them. 
Thanks to one of their greatest leaders, Moses Mendelssohn 
(1729-1786), the Jewish people were led gradually to see 
that their future must lie in sharing the common Hfe of the 
people in the midst of whom they lived. During all the 
years of their isolation they had preserved a vigorous intel- 
lectual life, but unfortunately it was concerned almost solely 
with their own circle of interests, their history, their Law, 
and their religion, but now a change takes place. Entering 
the universities and feeling the force of the intellectual 
currents of the time, the Jew became a citizen of the mod- 



JUDAISM 267 

ern world. His brilliant gifts, which had been but slightly- 
known, began to be manifest and after no long period he 
appeared in positions of leadership in varied forms of activ- 
ity. He is now an integral part of our world, taking his 
place by the side of his fellow-citizens in every walk of life. 
He is distinct in race, but one with us in nationality. With 
unparalleled tenacity he has clung to his racial distinctive- 
ness, and has done so because it is bound up so closely with 
his religion, which to him would be lost if he did not pre- 
serve his uniqueness as a people. 

The loss of nationality and the destruction of the temple 
and the sacrificial system by the Romans caused a profound 
change in the Jewish religion. Other means had to be found 
to maintain the unity of the people and preserve their reli- 
gious life. Deep in their breasts was the belief in the one 
God of Israel — they could no longer be alienated from him. 
In their hands was the Old Testament, the Torah, or Law, 
which became more precious as they were scattered far and 
wide and needed the support of a divine revelation. Com- 
mon worship on the holy Sabbath day was possible through 
the institution of the synagogue, which had become a part 
of their life during the exile while they were deprived of 
the ministries of the temple and the recurring feasts which 
bound them to the soil of their native land. Not only so, 
but the people of Israel, wherever they found themselves, 
felt certain that their old covenant with Jehovah held good, 
and, while the Ark with the tables of stone might be de- 
stroyed, the new covenant was indelibly written in their 
hearts and must remain in force forever. 

Judaism has always been a religion of Law and remains 
such to-day. It is easy to misinterpret the term and accuse 
the Jew of being a narrow legalist. That this danger has 
not been averted is freely acknowledged by leading Jewish 
scholars, but to use it as a term of reproach and as applicable 
to the religion as such would be unjust. As in the Old Tes- 
tament period and at the time of Christ Jewish men and 



26« THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

women had penetrated behind the form to its inner spiritual 
principle, so down through the ages the spiritually minded 
have found God and have been nourished, not on the dry 
husks of legal formalism, but on the living bread which has 
come down from heaven. But when we have said this the 
fact remains that to be a Jew meant to keep the Law. 
Obedience to a written code has been the mark of the reli- 
gion. Everything in conduct, even down to the most insig- 
nificant details, was determined exactly, and to fail in the 
observance of the written word was unthinkable in a well- 
regulated Jewish household. 

As might be expected, various codes have been con- 
structed. Back of them all lies the Law, embedded in the 
Old Testament. This was God's voice speaking His mes- 
sage in a form never to be superseded. But it was necessary 
to apply it to new situations as time passed, hence the need 
of further writings. The Sacred Scriptures needed inter- 
pretation for practical and homiletic purposes, and this was 
done in a long series of expositions written through many 
centuries called the Midrash, which means "inquiry" or 
"interpretation." The Talmud is the great codification of 
Jewish law, civil and canonical. It consists of two parts, the 
Mishna, or the text of the rules and regulations, and the 
Gemara, or the commentary. The Talmud exists in two 
recensions, the Palestinian and the Babylonian, the latter 
being later in time and by far the longer of the two. It was 
completed about the year A. D. 500. This great body of law 
is the mine from which Jewish scholars in all subsequent 
ages have produced the precious truths and traditions on 
which the people have been nourished. The Haggada, or 
non-legal part, consisting of expositions of the Bible narra- 
tives, and the Halacha, or legal sections, dealing with all 
phases of conduct and ceremonial, together comprise the 
great mass of rabbinical lore to be found in the Midrash and 
in the Talmud. Based on the accumulated stores to be found 
in these works other collections of laws have been formulated. 



JUDAISM 269 

Among them is that of the great Spanish Rabbi, Maimonides 
( 1 135-1204), who in 1 1 80 produced a code of law and cus- 
tom called the "Strong Hand," which has been very influ- 
ential among the Jews to the present time. Most Jews to- 
day, however, live under the ''Table Prepared," which was 
compiled by Joseph Caro in the sixteenth century and is a 
resume of the whole traditional law. But with all that has 
been done to revivify the Law and make it appear as a living 
expression of the will of God, the great problem is to make 
it an abiding force in the advancing Jewish community to- 
day. There is revolt against the binding character of the 
multitudinous rules and regulations, which touch not only 
the fundamental moral obligations, but cover an immense 
range of ceremonial observances and customs. These have 
become exceedingly irksome to the modern Jew in the 
western world, who does not want to be marked ofif from 
his fellows by obsolete and meaningless practices. 

Judaism may be said to have no definite articles of belief. 
A man's actions and conduct were most carefully regulated, 
but his beliefs were without any authoritative ecclesiastical 
sanction. This has led to laxity in beHef along with great 
strictness in conduct. There never have been any dogmatic 
tests, and hence no excommunications for heresy. Notwith- 
standing this, attempts frequently have been made to formu- 
late the beliefs of Judaism, but never have they been suc- 
cessful, and Mendelssohn used his influence to discourage 
anyone from any further ventures in this direction. To 
him religion was a life and not a creed, and could not be 
compressed within the bounds of a formula. 

But Judaism has believed, and believed with great earnest- 
ness, in a few great doctrines. At the head and transcend- 
ing all others is the unalterable belief in one God, high and 
lifted up, the Creator and sustainer of the universe, who at 
the same time is a Father brooding over His children with 
tender love. He is the God of justice and truth who will 
brook no lowering of the moral standard, and who will one 



270 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

day judge the world in righteousness. A list of thirteen 
articles of faith was constructed by Maimonides, "the one 
and only set of principles which have ever enjoyed wide 
authority in Judaism/ "These are: (i) Belief in the exist- 
ence of God, the Creator; (ii) belief in the unity of God; 
(iii) belief in the incorporeality of God; (iv) belief in the 
priority and eternity of God ; (v) belief that to God, and God 
alone, worship must be offered; (vi) belief in prophecy; 
(vii) belief that Moses was the greatest of all prophets; 
(viii) belief that the Law was revealed from heaven; (ix) 
belief that the Law will never be abrogated, and that no 
other Law will ever come from God; (x) belief that God 
knows the works of men; (xi) belief in reward and pun- 
ishment; (xii) belief in the coming of the Messiah; (xiii) 
belief in the resurrection of the dead." Maimonides was 
deeply influenced, as were so many thinkers in the Middle 
Ages, by Aristotle. He believed in the revelation to be 
found in the Old Testament, but sought to show that the 
truths of revelation were in harmony with reason and could 
be thoroughly rationalized. 

Down through Jewish history have come these two 
streams of law and creed, one stringent and the other lax, 
but there have been other tendencies. The Kabbala was a 
revolt against the intellectualism of the schools. It was a 
system of occult knowledge and mysticism, which exercised 
*a strange fascination over many minds both in Judaism and 
Christianity. By uniting man and the divine Spirit through 
the practice of virtue and the overcoming of evil, prepara- 
tion would be made for the coming of the Messiah who will 
restore all things. But here, too, there was excess in emo- 
tion and in mystical vagaries, and the inevitable reaction 
came in a new intellectualism, which found voice in the 
Jewish philosopher Spinoza (1632-1677), who, depending 
on pure thought, reduced the whole system of the universe 
to a thoroughgoing pantheism. With all these currents 

^ L Abrahams, Judaism, p. 31 f. (Constable, London, 1910.) 



JUDAISM 271 

streaming through her life Judaism emerged into the activ- 
ities of the modern world something more than a hundred 
years ago. A new era opened out before the Jew which has 
profoundly affected the religious life and thought of the 
people. 

Orthodoxy and Reform 

When Judaism came into intimate contact with modern 
thought and began to take a new part in the activities of the 
world a crisis could not but be precipitated. There were 
those who sought to keep their religion true to the traditions 
of the past and were scandalized by the thought of change. 
They have continued down to our own time and form a 
very considerable part of the people. But even among these 
conservatives the modern world has had its effect and all 
degrees of modification of the old standards can be discov- 
ered. On the other hand there is the Reform school com- 
posed of liberals who believe that the only hope of the race 
and the religion is to frankly admit that changes more or 
less drastic must be introduced and that Judaism must 
reinterpret itself in the light of modern knowledge. It is 
admitted on both sides that the differences do not constitute 
a schism, but may best be denominated as "schools." In the 
words of the late lamented Dr. Solomon Schechter, a leader 
of the conservative wing, each party might look upon the 
other as "His Majesty's Opposition"* in one great Parlia-^ 
ment of Judaism. 

There is complete agreement in both parties on certain 
fundamental points. The primary and inalienable doctrine 
of the faith is the unity of God, and, of course, there is not 
the slightest hesitation here. Judaism stands or falls on the 
platform of monotheism. So sure is she of her ground that 
her leaders make bold to claim that the two "daughter" 
religions, Christianity and Islam, have each done despite to 

" Seminary Addresses and other Papers, p. 239. (Ark Pub. Co., 



2^2 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

this central doctrine. Christianity, they declare, has ceased 
to believe in the essential unity of God by its doctrine of the 
Trinity, and Islam has lost the high ethical note of both 
Judaism and Christianity while it has been an unswerving wit- 
ness to the one God as an indivisible unity. Another point 
of agreement is with reference to the Jewish people as the 
chosen race. The ancient call of God to Abraham and his 
descendants in biblical times holds good and is a cardinal 
point of emphasis to-day. The race must be preserved in- 
tact and all intermarriage with Gentiles is severely con- 
demned. And when it comes to the acceptance by any mem- 
ber of the race of the claims of Christianity the anathemas 
which are heaped upon the heads of these ''perverts" are 
the bitterest of all the invectives of which the Jew is capable. 
But with all this the conservative is not quite convinced that 
the liberal has not let down the bars to such an extent that 
fusion with the surrounding community may ultimately 
result and the Jews as a distinct people cease to exist. 

Since the days of the exile, when the unknown prophet 
gave expression to the splendid universalism in the latter 
part of the book of Isaiah, that note has not been lacking in 
Judaism. True, a narrow particularism has more often been 
victorious than the more liberal, wider view, but it has been 
there nevertheless. The book of Jonah voices the protest 
against the narrowness of the period following Ezra and 
Nehemiah, and is one of the most splendid testimonies to 
the ideal of universalism we have. The Maccabean revolt 
naturally resulted in an exclusive attitude toward other 
peoples, but soon after an active propaganda was instituted 
which resulted in the addition of thousands of converts to 
the synagogues scattered over the Roman empire. These 
proselytes were either incorporated completely in the Jew- 
ish community, by accepting the moral obligations of the 
religion and also submitting to the authority of the cere- 
monial regulations, or became "Proselytes of the Gate," 
men who feared the God of Israel and acknowledged the 



JUDAISM 273 

binding character of the moral law, but did not become cir- 
cumcised and thus completely amalgamated with the Jewish 
people. At the time of Christ the school of Hillel and the 
school of Shammai were in conflict, the former standing for 
the broad and generous policy which furthered the winning 
of proselytes, the latter being narrow and exclusive and 
opposing all efforts to reach out after others. The School 
of Shammai was finally victorious and with the loss of 
nationality the Jew has not sought to win converts to his 
religion. 

This condition has obtained down through the centuries, 
and even to-day, when a different outlook has become the 
ideal of the more liberal Jews, no missionary propaganda is 
contemplated. Still the universal note is being sounded 
and the mission of Israel to the nations is earnestly ac- 
claimed. The form taken by this ideal differs among the 
orthodox and the Reform Jews. Holding fast the pro- 
phetic vision of a coming Messiah who shall be born of 
their race and be established in power and righteousness in 
Jerusalem, the men of orthodox faith see all nations coming 
to do him honor and acknowledging his rightful sway over 
the world. They shall all worship the one God Jehovah 
and spread His name far and wide until the knowledge of 
Jehovah shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. 
But in it all the Jew remains distinct and stands first, the 
chosen of God, His messenger peculiarly fitted to do his 
bidding and accomplish his desires. Such is the hope and 
expectation of the more conservative wing of Judaism. 
The Reform Jews, on the other hand, have a different ideal. 
Universalism is far more prominent as an immediate possi- 
bility than among the orthodox. According to several dec- 
larations of conferences of American liberal rabbis, *'The 
Messianic aim of Israel is not the restoration of the old 
Jewish state under a descendant of David, involving a second 
separation from the nations of the earth, but the union of all 
children of God in the confession of the unity of God, so 



274 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

as to realize the unity of all rational creatures and their call 
to moral sanctification."* And again, to use the words of 
one of the leading authorities, *'The Messianic idea now 
means to many Jews a belief in human development and 
progress, with the Jews filling the role of the Messianic 
people, but only as primus inter pares."^"^ 

Fear is expressed on the part of the conservatives that 
their liberal brethren are breaking down the wall of parti- 
tion between Jew and Gentile. It is possible now for one 
who belongs to another race to ask for admission to a Re- 
form synagogue and be received. This to a conservative is 
rank heresy. Their fundamental beliefs may be the same, 
but these new-fangled notions are sure to wreck the hopes 
of the children of Israel. But even the most liberal are 
strongly of the opinion that since monotheism has not yet 
prevailed and Christianity has not succeeded in keeping the 
doctrine unsullied their witness is essential to the religious 
development of the world and that this can best be accom- 
plished by the preservation of a people whose testimony to 
the one true God is clear and unalloyed. 

In the matter of the ceremonial law and the historic festi- 
vals there is also a deep cleavage. In diflferent degrees the 
orthodox hold fast the ancient traditions and with reluc- 
tance allow modifications to be introduced. They do not 
want to remove the old landmarks, and fear disintegration 
as a result. The Reform Jew, on the other hand, takes the 
position that ceremonies must prove their value under the 
conditions which now prevail, that they must not be retained 
merely because they have come down out of the past and 
have a certain historical value. In fact, he takes every- 
thing in Judaism — law, creed, ceremony, and custom — and 
subjects it to a searching criticism. He desires his religion 
to be efficient in the present day, and is willing to lay aside 
any item which may seem to him an encumbrance. The 

" Quoted in I. Abrahams, Judaism, p. 93!. 
^ I. Abrahams, op. cit., p. 94. 



JUDAISM 275 

pragmatic test is applied with vigor, and the conservative 
stands by and wonders whether out of the process anything 
worthy the ancient glory of Israel will remain. Yet what 
is happening before our eyes is inevitable, and we may be 
sure that with all its transmutations Judaism will long re- 
main a religion among the religions of the world. With 
their beHef in one God, a God of moral concern, whose 
influence has pervaded every relationship, given sanctity to 
the home and dignity to the individual life, a belief which 
has made prayer and praise a constant practice of the people 
and has held them together through appalHng experiences 
which might have shattered a spirit less tenacious, the 
people of Israel are with us to-day believing in themselves 
and in their destiny. Spurning the idea of a mediator be- 
tween God and men and rejecting the claims of that Man 
of Jewish race who would have led his people into a ful- 
fillment of their highest ideals, they have been kept apart 
from a fellowship which might have brought in the era of 
peace for which we all long generations or even centuries 
ago. What the future has in store we cannot say, but trust- 
ing in the same God and reading the same Scriptures of the 
Old Testament the Christian cannot but believe that the 
revelation of that God which is contained in those writings 
may yet assume to the Jew a new glory when seen in the 
face of Jesus Christ his Son. 

Suggestions for Further Study 

W. Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites (London, new 
edit, 1914). An epoch making volume on the early religion of 
the Semitic peoples. 

George A. Barton, The Religion of Israel (New York, 1918). A 
short but excellent sketch of the Old Testament Period. 

Israel Abrahams, Judaism (London, 1910). A splendid little sum- 
mary of the entire development. 

K. Kohler, Jewish Theology (New York, 1918). An extended 
statement from the standpoint of the Reform School. 

George Foot Moore, History of Religions, Vol. II, Chaps. I-IV. 



CHAPTER XI 
MOHAMMEDANISM 

The Prophet 

Islam/ the religion of Mohammed, arose in Arabia. The 
followers of the Prophet fondly believe that their religion 
was a new creation, handed down bodily and in finished form 
from heaven. But even a rapid survey of the origins of the 
faith is sufficient to show that, with all Mohammed added, 
the religion is firmly rooted in the past, and has received a 
number of its characteristic features from the preexisting 
heathenism of Arabia. The isolation and inaccessibilit)' of 
the peninsula provided the conditions in which a develop- 
ment could take place hidden from the rest of the world 
until it was ready to start on its \-ictorious march almost to 
the ends of the earth. Wellhausen speaks of the gods of 
Arabia as a *' Rubbish-heap of di\-ine names"; that is, the 
old religion was in a state of decrepitude. There were 
many of these deities, the most prominent of which was 
Allah. He was regarded as "the God," the supreme being, 
having three daughters. Professor Theodor Xoldeke be- 
lieves that the name Allah may have been applied to a num- 
ber of gods, and only gradually became the proper name of 
the Supreme God.* So Mohammed did not invent his God ; 
he clarified the conception and rid God of ''partners," but 
the monotheistic idea was not new to Arabia when the 
Prophet arose. Mecca was already a sacred city, the most 
sacred in the land, with the cubical building, the Kaaba, the 
center of worship. Near by was the holy well, Zemzem, 

* Islam means "to submit" and is the religion of submission to the 
will of God. Moslem, "one who has submitted," is the name fre- 
qticndy used of the followers of Mohammed. 

'Hastings' Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, article, "Arabs 
(Ancient)." 

276 



MOHAMMEDANISM tri 

from which all pilgrims still drink. The whole ritual of 
worship which is still follow^ed w^as in existence and was 
taken over complete into his religion by Mohammed. Islam 
was not a bolt out of the blue, but an adaptation of much 
that was old, thinly disguised and still persisting. 

Mohammed, "the Praised," was bom in Mecca in 570 
A. D., the posthumous son of Abdallah, of the tribe of the 
Koraish. His mother died when he was a Httle lad, and he 
was given a home first by his grandfather and then by his 
uncle Abu Talib. As a young child he was sent to be nursed 
and cared for by a Bedouin woman in the desert. Mecca 
was not a place where children could be expected to thrive, 
so his mother was following a well-known custom. His 
mother's death, which probably occurred shortly after his 
return, made a deep impression on the boy. He never for- 
got that his mother had been left a widow and he an orphan. 
Throughout his life ^lohammed was always solicitous that 
widows and orphans were cared for, and it has left an abid- 
ing mark on the religion which he founded. As a boy he 
doubtless tended his imcle's sheep. As he grew older he 
must have joined the caravans, which, with the entertain- 
ment of the pilgrims at the time of the feasts, were the source 
of Mecca's wealth. We do not know, but he may have vis- 
ited distant parts of Arabia and the adjacent countries in 
this way. It is quite certain that he made at least one trip 
to the borders of Syria. This period of his life is obscure. 
He seems to have been well thought of, earning the name 
of Al Amin, the ''Trusty," by some ser^'ice faithfully 
rendered. 

At about the age of twent}'-five a most important event 
happened. A distant relative of his, the wealthy widow 
Khadijah, was looking for some person to take charge of 
her business affairs on one of the great caravan journeys 
on which she herself could not go. Her attention was di- 
rected to her kinsman ]Mohammed and the arrangement was 
made. He not only performed the service to her great 



2;cS THE RELIGIONS OE MANKIND 

satisfaction Init was so pleasing in person and manner that 
she offered him her hand. He accepted and they were 
married, Mohammed a young man of twenty-five and she 
his senior by fifteen years. Yet with all this difference in 
age these two lived happily together until her death twenty- 
five years after. He never forgot her and always remem- 
bered her with gratitude and respect to the end of his life. 
She must have been a remarkable woman. During the long 
period of their married life Mohammed did not take an- 
other wife. Several children were born of the union, but 
only one lived, Fatima, who became the wife of AH, one of 
the earliest of Mohammed's followers and famous in the 
early history of Islam. 

Mohammed's marriage to Khadijah changed the whole 
course of his life. He had been a poor young man, but now, 
married to a wealthy woman, he had leisure. Naturally of 
a pensive disposition, he could give full rein to his inclina- 
tion with no anxiety concerning his daily bread. What 
transpired during the next fifteen years we have little 
means of knowing. He must have brooded long and 
earnestly over the moral tragedy of the universe and the 
issues of human life. Other men in Arabia at this time had 
become dissatisfied with the old paganism. We have some 
knowledge of these seekers after truth, Hanifs, as they were 
called. They were seeking to find a pure religion and had 
a strong drawing toward monotheism. Eventually these 
men became either Christian or Mohammedan. But what 
influence they exercised on Mohammed must have been 
slight. There is no indication that he ever had any leaning 
toward Christianity, although he had a certain knowledge 
of the stories and characters of the Old and New Testa- 
ments. The Christianity with which he might have come 
into contact was so covered over with formalism and so lack- 
ing in vitality that there was little chance of his being drawn 
in that direction. He must work things out for himself in 
his own way. 



MOHAMMEDANISM 279 

In the year A. D. 610, while Mohammed with his family 
was sojourning on Mount Hira, near Mecca, during the 
most trying season of the year, he had an experience which 
made him into a different man. He thought he heard a heav- 
enly voice commanding him to convey a message. The 
word was probably what we now have in the 96th Sura or 
Chapter of the Koran. 

"Recite thou, in the name of thy Lord who created; — 
Created man from Clots of Blood : — 
Recite thou! For thy Lord is the most Beneficent, 
Who hath taught the use of the pen ; — 
Hath taught man that which he knoweth not." 

— (Rodwell's Translation.) 

Doubtless the Meccans had recently learned how to read 
and write, and it was considered an evidence of divine 
favor. God was almighty ; he had created man from "clots 
of blood," which was their way of saying that God had 
created man out of a very insignificant thing. The climax 
of the revelation was that Mohammed was to proclaim a 
message — "Recite thou." The participle of this verb is 
Koran, "that which is recited," and appropriately becomes 
the name of the sacred book of the religion. It is literally 
the collection of the inspired utterances of the Prophet 
which he was to "recite" to the people. 

Mohammed was deeply agitated by his experience. He 
was not sure of himself and was in doubt about the reahty 
of the call. He waited for another revelation to confirm the 
trustworthiness of the first, but it did not come. Khadijah 
comforted him with the assurance that God had really 
spoken to him and would do so again if only he would have 
patience. But still there was no voice, and he was driven 
almost to desperation. He attempted to make away with his 
life by throwing himself to sure death over one of the 
precipices which abounded on Mount Hira, but his good 
angel Khadijah interposed and kept him from carrying out 
his purpose. At last after two years (this is only one of the 



28o THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

estimates of the length of the period of waiting) another 
revelation came. It is given in the 74th Sura of the Koran. 

"O thou, enwrapped in thy mantle 1 
Arise and warn ! 
Thy Lord — magnify Him! 
Thy Raiment — purify it! 
The abomination — flee it ! 
And bestow not favors that thou mayest receive again with 

increase ; 
And for thy Lord wait thou patiently. 
For when there shall be a trump on the trumpet, 
That shall be a distressful day, 
A day, to the Infidels, devoid of ease." 

— (Rodwell's Translation.) 

From this time to the end of his life Mohammed never 
doubted that he was in immediate contact with God. The 
revelations were forthcoming whenever circumstances called 
for an authoritative word. He now had been told to "arise 
and warn," to preach the message of God whether men were 
pleased with it or not, to herald the coming of the Day of 
Judgment, when unbelievers would find themselves in dire 
distress. 

But why that strange phrase, *'0 thou, enwrapped in thy 
mantle"? There is much obscurity relative to the physical 
accompaniments of the revelations. They came to him in 
various forms and under different conditions. Here it 
seems to have been while he was closely blanketed. Was it 
during a seizure, say of epilepsy, or a kindred malady? 
There are many who find evidence that Mohammed was 
subject to such attacks, and that this accounts for many 
things which otherwise would have no explanation. They 
think of Mohammed as a "pathological case,"* that he was 
not quite normal physically and mentally, and that the enig- 
ma of his character and personality is to be solved only on 
this supposition. The problem, however, is not yet solved. 

*D. B. Macdonald, Aspects of Islam, p. 60. (Macmillan, New 
York, 191 1.) 



MOHAMMEDANISM 281 

If the second revelation came in the year 612 the re- 
mainder of his life falls into two periods of ten years each, 
the first of which was spent in Mecca, the latter in Medina. 
Mohammed immediately began to preach to his friends in 
Mecca. The burden of his message was that there was but 
one God, Allah, that he would not tolerate the worship of 
any other gods (''adding partners to God," was the phrase 
used), that idolatry was an abomination, and that a Day of 
Judgment was coming, when all those wlio refused to listen 
would be hurled into the raging fire of Hell. Not many Us- 
tened to him. Khadijah became his first convert. She was 
followed by a few others of the best people in Mecca. There 
were Abu Bakr, AH, and finally Omar, all of whom became 
Caliphs or ''successors" of the Prophet. But aside from 
these and a few others the Meccans turned a deaf ear to 
his warnings. Only a small group of slaves and lowly 
people accepted his leadership, and these, because they had 
no standing in the community, were made the butt of ridi- 
cule and abuse. It was carried to such an extent that they 
left the country and found a refuge in the Christian king- 
dom of Abyssinia across the Red Sea. Once they came back 
on hearing that a better feeling existed between the Prophet 
and the citizens of Mecca, but it was so shortlived that they 
hastened back to their exile. How long they remained 
there we do not know. 

The better feeHng which has been alluded to was occa- 
sioned by a temporary willingness on the part of Moham- 
med to recognize that the "daughters" of Allah, believed in 
from of old by the Meccans, might be considered as "inter- 
cessors" between men and Allah. The Meccans thought 
they had gained a point and were willing now to listen to 
the preaching of their fellow-townsman. He repented, how- 
ever, of his weakness in a short time and withdrew the con- 
cession entirely. This made the Meccans all the more bitter 
and the breach between them widened. It came to such a 
pass that a ban was proclaimed against Mohammed and his 



282 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

people. They were ostracized and lived precariously and 
more or less alone. This period lasted, it may be, for two 
years. The climax was reached for Mohammed in the year 
620 by the death of his faithful companion Khadijah and 
of his protector Abu Talib. His uncle had never embraced 
Islam, but stood by his protege until the end. No one could 
lay hands on Mohammed while Abu Talib hved. So it was 
a serious matter when Mohammed lost the protection of the 
arm of his powerful uncle. But even more serious was 
the loss of his wife. She had been his balance-wheel for 
many years. Her wisdom and judgment, coupled with her 
devotion, undoubtedly had saved many a difficult situation. 
Now she was gone and Mohammed was never quite the 
same again. 

The question of the sincerity of the Prophet of Islam must 
be faced here. The evidence up to this point does not 
justify an adverse judgment. He preached his doctrine 
unhesitatingly despite the opposition of the ^leccans, whom 
he was trying to win. Political expediency would have 
dictated a different course. The compromise with the Mec- 
cans was a momentary weakness. His deliberate judgment 
is to be seen in his return to his former position, from which 
he never deviated afterwards. He chose the unpopular 
way whether it brought him success or not. But from the 
time we have now reached on to the end of his Hfe the Mo- 
hammed with whom we deal is a different man. 

The Prophet now realized that Mecca offered him no 
field ; he must go elsewhere if he were to secure the favor- 
able hearing he desired. He began to look around. He went 
to Taif, not many miles away, to try out his message, but 
was stoned out of the city. But about this time he discov- 
ered that two tribes in Medina which had for many years 
been in a jealous contest for supremacy were now anxious 
to compose their differences under a common leader. This 
was a splendid opportunity and Mohammed seized it. 
Medina was the city from which his mother had come and 



MOHAMMEDANISM 283 

he was not unfamiliar with its problems. It took some time 
to make such arrangements as would be acceptable to all 
parties, so it was not until the year 622 that the transfer was 
made. In the middle of that year, after his followers had 
slipped away in little groups, the Prophet and Abu Bakr 
left Mecca secretly and made their way by a round-about 
route to Medina, which is just two hundred and fifty miles 
north of Mecca. This Flight, or Hegira, marks the year 
I A. H. (Anno Hegirse) in Mohammedan chronology. Mo- 
hammed settled down and made Medina his home until he 
died just ten years after in A. D. 632. While in Mecca Mo- 
hammed had been a preacher of righteousness, a warner of 
the wrath to come. He stood as a Prophet of God much 
as the Old Testament prophets, whose successor he felt 
himself to be. Now it is different. He is a civil ruler, a 
potentate, with administrative problems on his hands and 
with his position to sustain against all comers. He became 
perforce a soldier, making war and resisting attack — a very 
different role all around from that in Mecca. And the dif- 
ference within is as great as that of the outward circum- 
stances. 

For ten years Mohammed led a strenuous life which it is 
impossible here to follow in detail. He began as the ruler of 
Medina with the very doubtful allegiance of very few tribes- 
men; he ended his career as the recognized ruler of all 
Arabia. Summary commands had even been sent out to sur- 
rounding nations warning them against resisting the claims 
of the Prophet. Mecca had been captured with no blood- 
shed, the people opening the gates of the city and receiving 
their old townsman with open arms. The sweep was com- 
plete. It had not been accomplished without opposition and 
bloody contests. Mohammed gave himself to practices — 
breaking the sacred months of truce, assassination of per- 
sonal enemies, raiding the caravans of the Meccans — prac- 
tices which may have been necessary to win by force the 
mastery of Arabia, but which are hard to defend when they 



284 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

are the deeds of one vvtio is a preacher of righteousness and 
who claims to be voicing the inner counsels of the God of all 
mankind. The battle was not always in favor of Moham- 
med, but steadily and persistently he followed his course, 
whether circumstances were for him or against him and 
by fair means or foul, until he had attained his ambition. 
But with Arabia at his feet he looked out on new worlds to 
conquer, and the great campaigns which were carried on 
after his death were undoubtedly born in the mind of Mo- 
hammed himself. His ambition had grown until it had 
become world-wide. 

When the Prophet went to Medina three tribes of Jews 
occupied their sections of the area which made up the larger 
community. They thought Mohammed might accept their 
faith because he had begun to claim that he was only restor- 
ing the true religion of Abraham. Mohammed on his side 
thought that the Jews would accept him as the promised 
Messiah and receive his message as a divine revelation. 
Both were soon brought to disappointment. For one cause 
or another Mohammed took aggressive action against the 
Jews. Their tragic fate is one of the darkest blots on the 
reputation of the Prophet, already sadly stained. Two of the 
tribes were cruelly banished and the third suflFered a more 
terrible fate. Under circumstances which do httle to miti- 
gate the horror the women and children were sold into 
slavery and the men — six or eight hundred of them — were 
butchered in cold blood, their bodies in little groups of 
threes and fours dropping into an enormous ditch which 
had been prepared for their bloody reception. The Prophet 
of God gave his sanction to this unbelievable cruelty with no 
compunctions and with no diminution of his claim to be the 
obedient servant of the great God of justice and mercy! 

Whatever may have been in his mind before the death of 
Khadijah Mohammed took no second wife while she lived. 
But when she died he married soon again and continued to 
increase his harem until he had twelve or thirteen wives. 



MOHAMMEDANISM 285 

Whatever we may think of polygamy, such conduct on the 
part of the Prophet did not affect his followers. They 
simply took it for granted as an accepted institution. But 
the conditions under which he took several of his wives 
were such as to make it impossible for us to doubt that 
Mohammed was displaying every sign of being a sensualist. 
In one case, when he married the wife of his adopted son, 
Zeid, who divorced her that she might become the wife of 
the Prophet, even his followers were scandalized, and only 
the prompt arrival of a revelation from Allah saved his 
face and made it right for him to do as he had done. Only 
by such a terrible expedient did he cover the all too con- 
trolling passion which lay so near the surface of his life. 
His insane jealousy, fear that others might be enamoured 
of his wives, was the real motive which led to the seclusion 
of women behind the veil. This one act has been respon- 
sible for as much of the backwardness and degradation of 
life in the East as any other known influence. When to 
polygamy are added facile divorce and the sanction of 
slavery the charge against the system is about complete. 
He was, it is true, a child of his time, but instead of leaving 
woman better off he is responsible for binding her more 
securely and for making the problem of her emancipation 
and enlightenment infinitely more difficult than it might have 
been had he never lived. 

How explain the change? A seemingly sincere preacher 
of righteousness until the last ten years of his life, then a 
period which Professor Macdonald speaks of as *'the last 
terrible ten years"* — what can be the explanation? Only 
this, that the loss of his good wife Khadijah and the acces- 
sion of power as a ruler in Medina transformed him com- 
pletely, and the side of his nature which had been held in 
control gained the ascendency and ruined him. He may have 
been more or less abnormal; undoubtedly his inner nature 



* Aspects of Islam, p. 74. 



286 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

had not been fortified by careful discipline during his out- 
wardly correct years. Still it remains true that the loss of his 
moral stay in his wife and the rapid increase of power 
touched the two weak spots in Mohammed's character, and 
he was undone. Yet with all that may be said on this side, 
the Prophet appeared to his followers and must, as we see 
him through their eyes, likewise appear to us as a reformer. 
He found the Arabs practicing infanticide — of girl babies — 
and he put an end to this effectively and for all time ; he 
found the Arabs torn and weakened by the blood-feud, and 
he welded them into a single brotherhood; he found them 
worshiping many gods, and when he died they were acclaim- 
ing Allah as the one God Almighty. He was a reformer, but 
failed at the crucial point of personal character. The pathos 
is that his greatness should have blinded the eyes of his 
followers so that they failed to realize that he had forfeited 
the right to their allegiance by a surrender of the principles 
of truth and honor and justice and mercy for which he had 
once stood. 

Faith and Practice 

When Mohammed died in 632 the Koran had not been 
compiled. It could be recited by those who had been his 
close companions, but it had not been reduced entirely to 
writing. When quite a number of the ''Companions" were 
killed in a desperate battle about a year after the Prophet's 
death it became evident that something must be done, or the 
inspired words would soon be lost. One compilation was 
made by Zaid, Mohammed's former amanuensis, and, when 
disputes arose over various readings, a final recension was 
made by Zaid and several members of Mohammed's own 
tribe, and this has been the standard version down to the 
present day. The finished work, written in Arabic, the 
"Language of the Angels," is about as long as the New Tes- 
tament. It consists of one hundred and fourteen chapters, 
or suras, of very unequal length. They are arranged in 



I 



MOHAMMEDANISM 287 

general with the long suras first and the short suras last, 
but this order is almost the exact reverse of the correct 
chronological order. The lack of a sufficient number of 
names and dates by which the various sections can be identi- 
fied and correctly placed in the life of the Prophet renders 
the Koran a most difficult book to use historically. Yet it is 
our chief source on Mohammed. It is his book ; it undoubt- 
edly came from him and is a correct transcript of his mind 
and the development of his thought. The frequent repe- 
tition of the word "say" indicates that in Mohammed's 
mind God is the speaker throughout and dictates to the 
Prophet what he is to "say" to the people. The Moham- 
medan theory of the Koran is the most extreme illustration 
in any literature of plenary verbal inspiration. The ac- 
cepted doctrine in the Mohammedan world is that the Koran 
is the uncreated word of God, which has always existed at 
the right hand of Allah and which was dehvered to Gabriel, 
who in turn was to convey it piecemeal to the Prophet as 
each foreordained need should arise. There are many lofty 
passages filled with poetic fire and the burning passion of 
righteousness, but when the "awful machinery of divine 
inspiration" is used to cover his own sensuality and to 
compose petty difficulties in his harem the sincerity of Mo- 
hammed is strained to the breaking point and the Koran 
becomes a very human document, of great interest withal 
because it opens the way into the mind and heart of one of 
the most compelling of men. 

The Koran is the chief foundation of Islam, the author- 
ity par excellence on doctrine and practice. But much that 
Mohammedans believe and do is taken from the Traditions, 
the Sunna, as they are called. "The term signifies the cus- 
tom, habit, usage of the Prophet."" They cover all phases 
of fife and are believed in by all the Faithful. They are lit- 
erally "traditions," handed down by word of mouth in the 



'F. A. Klein, The Religion of Islam, p. 24. (Triibner, London, 
1906.) 



288 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

early day until they were put down in writing. They differ 
in authority, depending on the trustworthiness of the per- 
sons from whom they have been derived. Collections of the 
Traditions have been made, which are received as standard 
by the people. In recent years the tendency among Euro- 
pean scholars has been to discredit a large number of the 
received traditions, some going to such extremes that little 
confidence can be placed in any fact concerning Mohammed 
and his life unless it can be verified from other sources. 
This is undoubtedly going too far, but enough has been done 
to make the student wary of over-confidence in making 
many statements he might have felt sure of a quarter of a 
century ago. These two sources are called the Roots of 
Islam — there are also two Branches. 

Should the followers of Mohammed agree on any point 
which is not specifically covered either in the Koran or the 
Traditions that "Agreement," or Ijma, is accepted as au- 
thoritative. Now of course practically it is the agreement of 
the doctors of the law, the recognized leaders of Moham- 
medan opinion, but with Islam divided as it is to-day even 
this is not easy to achieve so there shall be any real con- 
sensus of view. Space is taken to mention it here because 
any advance or change in thought and practice the religion 
may make in the future depends upon this possibility. The 
statement is frequently made that a changed Islam is no 
longer Islam, but Islam has changed in the past, and un- 
doubtedly, with the pressure of a new world situation, a new 
Islam will come into being. There are scarcely any limits 
to the possibility of transformation w^hen a religion, brought 
to bay, attempts to fit itself to new conditions. Whether the 
changes are fundamental or only on the surface they will 
be made, in spite of conservatives who are horrified at the 
departure from the old landmarks. The last and least sig- 
nificant of the sources of Islam, one of the Branches, is 
Qias, or reasoning by analogy. The learned doctors may 
deal with new problems which arise by comparing them with 



MOHAMMEDANISM 289 

similar cases already settled. The decision must be based 
on the Koran, the Sunna, and the Ijma, to be vahd. In these 
ways do the Mohammedans seek to meet new situations as 
they rise and still be true to the original faith of Mo- 
hammed. 

The religion of Islam is divided into two main divisions, 
practical duties and doctrines to be believed. The duties are 
five in number, called the Five Pillars of the Faith. There 
are other lesser duties, but these stand out as the cardinal 
points of practice, necessary to one who claims to be a 
follower of the Prophet. The first is the repetition of the 
creed, "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is the 
Prophet of Allah." The simplest of all creeds, to be learned 
quickly and never to be forgotten, its hold on the Moslem 
world has been tremendous. It is repeated at sundry and 
all times until it eats its way into the inner core of a man's 
being, almost never to be eradicated. Gibbon speaks of it as 
"an eternal truth and a necessary fiction." The idea of one 
God is the eternal truth, but Islam needs more; the apos- 
tleship of Mohammed is essential if Islam is to be Islam at 
all. The second duty is the observance of the five stated 
daily prayers. These prayers must be preceded by cere- 
monial lustrations, with water if it is to be had, otherwise 
with clean desert sand. The prayers are to be said either 
in public or private and always in the direction of the sacred 
Kaaba in Mecca. The times for these devotional periods 
are highly important — just before sunrise, at high noon, in 
the later afternoon (at the "yellowing" of the sun, as it is 
known in the desert), just after sunset, and lastly when 
night shuts in. At these times the Muezzin, or crier, ascends 
the minaret and summons the faithful to prayer. The hu- 
man voice is the church-bell in Moslem lands. There are 
other prayers, but these are the regularly designated seasons 
when without fail all must turn to Mecca and go through 
the carefully regulated acts which accompany the repetition 
of the well-known formulas. The hushed stillness of rev- 



290 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

erence is upon a Mohammedan as he bows before Allah and 
makes his requests known to him. 

The third Pillar is the thirty days' Fast of Ramadan. 
During this sacred month the faithful are to abstain from 
food, drink, and bodily pleasure from sunrise to sunset. 
It is carried so far that one is supposed not to swallow his 
own saliva. The fast is not a severe hardship when the 
month comes in the cool season, but when it falls in the 
torrid season it becomes a real burden. Mohammed, prob- 
ably out of sheer ignorance, would have nothing of inter- 
calated months, with the result that the months move slowly 
through the seasons and do not remain fixed. The Ramadan 
fast is strictly observed, but like so much in Islam the ob- 
servance is purely formal. Those who fast all day are 
likely to feast all night — it makes no difference so long as 
the letter of the law is kept. The fourth duty is that of 
Almsgiving, which is expected of every Moslem. In an 
Islamic country under Moslem officials the alms are col- 
lected like a tax, but there are few countries under Moslem 
rule to-day, and so it becomes a matter on each one's con- 
science. Let us give the Mohammedans credit for taking 
care of their poor. The last of the duties or Pillars is the 
Pilgrimage to Mecca. It is the duty of every Moslem once 
in his Hfe to undertake the journey. If a man cannot go 
himself, it is meritorious to send some one and thus go by 
proxy. The Pilgrimage must be made at the appointed sea- 
son. The details of the ceremonies connected with it are 
quite elaborate. They include the wearing of the Ihram, 
or two seamless wrappers, which must be put on as one 
comes to the borders of the sacred region; standing on 
Mount Arafat, near Mecca ; going around the Kaaba seven 
times, during which each must kiss or touch the holy stone, 
which is fixed in one corner of the building; tasting the 
waters of the well Zemzem; and doing other strange and 
unique things, all of which have to them a well-known 
significance. 



MOHAMMEDANISM 291 

Another recognized duty, not included in the Pillars, is 
that of Jihad, or the Holy War, which Moslem powers wage 
against unbelievers. The last attempt to declare Jihad was 
in the fall of 1914, when the Sheik-ul-Islam, the spiritual 
head of Islam in Turkey, obeying the orders of the Sultan, 
called upon all Moslems everywhere to turn against the 
enemies of Turkey and fight the battles of the faith. It was 
a Holy War so evidently "Made in Germany," as Professor 
Snouck Hurgronje put it, that its call was only heeded as 
far as Germany's influence extended and fell on deaf ears 
in most of the Moslem world, which remained true to the 
Allies. How the Holy War will be interpreted in the future 
with Islam divided against itself is one of the most inter- 
esting political questions before statesmen to-day, and is a 
serious problem in Islam itself. 

The essential doctrines of Mohammedanism are as defi- 
nitely stated as the duties. They are again five in number, 
the first being that of God, which we shall leave to the last. 
The next is that of angels, the servants of God, whose one 
desire is to love and know God. They are free from all 
sin, and act as intercessors for men before God. Besides 
the angels are the jinn, who also must be believed in. They 
are the genii of the Arabian Nights, some of whom are 
believers and some infidels. They were inherited, like so 
many other things by Mohammed, from the superstitions of 
pre-Islamic paganism. The doctrine of the Books stands 
next. The chief sacred books are the Koran, the Pentateuch, 
the Zabur, or Psalms of David, and the Injil, or Gospel of 
Jesus. The orthodox believe that all previous books are 
abrogated by the Koran, thus practically rejecting the Old 
and New Testaments, although every reference to the Bible 
in the Koran is favorable to a belief in its inspiration and 
authority. The fourth doctrine is that of the Prophets. 
Many are mentioned, but the leading names are Adam, 
Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. It is held 
that all the others were sent to their own people while Mo- 



292 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

hammed was sent to all peoples. Jesus, as is seen, is rec- 
ognized as a prophet, the only sinless one among them, 
according to the Koran and the traditions. His death on the 
cross is denied as beneath the dignity of one of God's chosen 
ones. But the one overwhelming fact enunciated by this 
doctrine is that Mohammed is the Prophet superseding all 
others. They led up to and pointed toward him, and only 
by accepting his claims can one be true to the essential 
message of all the others. Then follows the doctrine of 
the Resurrection and the Last Day. There will be the 
sounding of the Trumpets, the Descent of the Books, the 
weighing in the Balances, and the crossing of the Narrow 
Bridge, from which the wicked fall off into the fiery pit 
below. All mankind, good and bad, will be raised and will 
answer for their deeds. All Moslems will in the end be 
saved no matter what their record may have been. The 
last state is in heaven or hell, both of which are pictured 
with vivid imagery, calculated to appeal to the imagination 
of the dweller in the desert. 

The doctrine of God is so important that it occupies nine 
tenths of the space in Mohammedan works on theology. 
There is but one God, Allah, and he is the omnipotent Cre- 
ator and Ruler of the universe. He has many qualities 
which the Moslem expresses by repeating the ninety-nine 
most beautiful names of God. Of these attributes, or qual- 
ities, what are called the essential attributes are life, knowl- 
edge (absolute omniscience), power, and will. The doctrine 
of the foreordination of good and evil follows logically from 
the emphasis which is put on the almightiness of Allah. It 
has had an interesting history. The Prophet was no theo- 
logian and gave expression to contradictory views in the 
Koran, but as the suras are studied in chronological order 
predestination becomes more marked. There the begin- 
nings are found of the fatalistic pall which has always hung 
over Islam, cutting the nerve of moral enthusiasm and ren- 
dering impossible any movement toward social reform. Was 



MOHAMMEDANISM 293 

it not all pre-determined by the Almighty Allah ? Only once 
was the doctrine seriously challenged. For thirty- four years 
at the beginning of the third Islamic century, that is, about 
A. D. 825, a party flourished in Bagdad, who denied divine 
predestination and asserted free will in man. These Free- 
thinkers in Islam, Mutazilites, or "Seceders," as they were 
called, held other unorthodox doctrines, such as the creation 
of the Koran, and had great power until they were over- 
come and in turn suffered the persecution they had inflicted 
on the more orthodox. They were finally discomfited in 
debate and were unable again to lift up their heads through 
the victory of al-Ashari, the orthodox champion, who had 
once been a Mutazilite himself. He was a master of dialectic 
and brought over into Islamic theology the methods of the 
scholastic philosophy. He gave a great impetus to ortho- 
doxy, which retains its almost undisputed hold to-day, and 
of which no feature is emphasized with more insistence than 
the doctrine of God's unchangeable decrees pre-determining 
all that happens in the world of nature and of men. 

With all the Koran says about the mercy and compassion 
of Allah, the great, overshadowing attribute is power. This 
was Mohammed's emphasis, and it still rules the Islamic 
world. It is power unlimited, unrestrained by any law of 
holiness or love. This were to lessen the dignity of Allah 
and bring him down from the throne of his unapproachable 
might. It makes no difference to the Moslem to have it 
suggested that it might be an inner Hmitation, growing out 
of the very nature of God, which is essentially hoHness and 
love. It would be a limitation nevertheless, and that is 
enough for him to spurn the suggestion as a temptation of the 
evil one. Allah must be able to do as he wills with no let nor 
hindrance. In this way Islam has played fast and loose 
with morality, not being able to connect the fundamental dis- 
tinction between right and wrong with the essential nature 
of God. Sin, then, in man becomes not a breach of a moral 
law founded on an eternal ethical cleavage which goes right 



294 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

to the heart of the universe itself, but a mere violation of an 
arbitrary command which might be changed according to the 
whim or caprice of Allah, who thus becomes a typical Orien- 
tal despot, irresponsible and unrestrained by any principle 
within or without. 

Another doctrine must be coupled with this to appreciate 
the kind of God Allah is in relation to his people. It is the 
doctrine of "difference," which asserts the absolute separa- 
tion of Allah and men. God is not a Father ; that would be 
to make him like men, for the term ''father" suggests to 
Moslems primarily and almost entirely physical generation, 
which they hold would be unworthy of God. So man in no 
sense is a partaker of the divine nature; he was not made in 
the image of God. God must not be brought down to so 
low a level as that. Man is carnal and must always remain 
so. Salvation does not mean the development of the divine 
nature within so as to fit man for spiritual communion with 
his Father. It is merely such an obedience to the rules and 
regulations which have been laid down that man may secure 
the reward in heaven which Allah has promised. And the 
heaven is not spiritual, but one suited to the physical desires 
which man is conscious of and which he will never outgrow. 
It is a luscious garden of fruits and running streams with 
delightful nooks in which are the hoitris, or damsels, which 
are the principal reward of the righteous. Such is Islam in 
its naked shame, holding men down to the purely physical, 
and failing to Hft their eyes to a world of spiritual light and 
beauty where we shall be with God and see him and be 
like him. 

But there were and are Moslems not satisfied with such 
an outlook. Mysticism has also found a home in Islam as 
in Christianity. There have been men who felt that God 
was in their hearts and was speaking to them, who desired 
communion with him and would be satisfied with nothing 
else. The greatest of these was al-Ghazzali, who died A. D. 
Ill I. He was sure that there was that in man which could 



MOHAMMEDANISM 295 

come into contact with God. His experience was more than 
could be explained by the barren formulas of the scholastic 
theology. Yet he was not unorthodox. He accepted the 
apostleship of the Prophet, the authority of the Koran, 
and the Traditions, and used the methods of the scholastic 
philosophy. But he was a mystic, seeing the inner light and 
experiencing the glow of the quiet presence of God in his 
inmost being. He could not deny this reality, and his great 
work was "to reduce to an orthodox possibility those mysti- 
cal conceptions, and to find a resting place for that possi- 
bility in the church of Islam."* Others went far beyond 
al-Ghazzali and were not so wise as he. They did not stop 
until they had landed in sheer pantheism, virtually denying 
all the specific doctrines of their faith and holding that all 
beliefs and outward practices were meaningless in the pres- 
ence of the mystic union of the soul and the great All, whom 
they might still call Allah, but whose essential character they 
had completely denied. The mystical experience was given 
another vent, however, in the Darwish orders, which are 
scattered so widely over the Islamic world. The meetings 
of these brotherhoods seek to stimulate the emotional expe- 
rience by well-understood exercises. Though they may be 
a poor substitute for the communion with God which Chris- 
tians experience in Jesus Christ, they give abundant testi- 
mony to the presence in the heart of Moslems of a longing 
after God which only his presence can satisfy. 

Islam in History 

The rapid expansion of Islam is one of the marvels of 
history. When Mohammed died in 632, plans of conquest 
were already in his mind. During the period of the first 
four, or orthodox. Caliphs (632-661), Persia, Syria, Pales- 
tine, and Egypt were subjugated. In the year 711 the Mos- 
lem armies entered Spain, having already crossed the entire 

* D. B. Macdonald, Aspects of Islam, p. 194. 



296 THE RELIGIONS OE MANKIND 

breadth of North Africa, and by 732 were to be found as 
far north as Central France. Here at Tours they were met 
by King Charles, who received the name of Martel, or 
**Hammer," from this battle, and suffered a decisive defeat, 
the first check the Moslem has met in his victorious prog- 
ress. The battle of Tours was one of the decisive battles 
of the world. The fate of Europe was decided that day, 
whether it should be Moslem or Christian. The faith also 
spread into Turkestan and even entered remote China. These 
conquests took place during the ascendency of the Arabs, 
before they gave place to the Turks in the leadership of 
Islam. After the four orthodox Caliphs, Abu Bakr, Omar, 
Othman, and AH, who ruled from the old seat of authority in 
Arabia, the center was shifted to Damascus, where the 
Omayyad Caliphs ruled from 661 to 750. Then again there 
was a transfer and for a briUiant period Bagdad was the 
center of the Islamic world. Here the Abbasid Caliphs held 
sway in pomp and splendor from 750 to 1258. The last cen- 
turies saw degeneracy and the slow but sure decline of pres- 
tige. The authority was passing over to the Turks, who had 
come in from Central Asia and were making themselves mas- 
ters of the situation in Asia Minor. 

How account for this marvelous expansion? Canon W. 
H. T. Gairdner mentions' a number of factors which help 
in arriving at a conclusion. Zeal for God was a motive, not 
unmixed with baser elements, which welded the loosely or- 
ganized Arab tribesmen into a compact body and drove them 
out to do battle against the enemies of Allah. To this must 
be added zeal for plunder and slaves. This made a strong 
appeal to the Arab. He was to be the soldier of Islam sup- 
ported by the tribute of the peoples he conquered. Arabia 
thus became the breeding place and training ground for army 
after army which went out to conquer a world. The ex- 
haustion might have come sooner than it did had it not been 

^ Rebuke of Islam, chap. iii. (United Council for Missionary Edu- 
cation, London, 1920.) 



MOHAMMEDANISM 297 

for the importation of large numbers of concubines and 
women slaves which were increased greatly by the wars. 
The countries which were conquered fell by the sword, but 
after the initial bloodshed there was usually peace. The 
enormous numbers converted to Islam were not necessarily 
forced into Islam at the edge of the sword, though that hap- 
pened at times. With a nation the alternative was Islam or 
the sword, but with an individual after the new religion had 
been installed it was Islam or tribute. They might remain 
Christians on condition of paying tribute, and many did 
this, as witness the Coptic Church in Egypt, the Armenian, 
and other of the so-called Oriental Christian churches in the 
Near East. When they turned Moslem it was usually the 
pressure of the whole system. Under Islam, even if they 
remained Christian, there was a large measure of justice 
and less persecution than was frequently the case when in- 
tolerance marked the attitude of the warring sects in the 
decaying Eastern Roman Empire. It was a positive relief, 
for example, in Egypt, to pass from Christian rule to that 
of Islam. As soon as the Christians paid the tribute they 
were under Moslem protection. The sexual freedom al- 
lowed under Islam was a strong inducement to men not 
strongly under the influence of Christian ideals. The Mos- 
lem soldiers and those who followed the armies into any 
country were free to intermarry with any of the women of 
the land, and of course the children were always Moham- 
medans. Thus Islam won its victories, both as a poHtical 
force and as a religion. The kind of Christianity Islam met 
could expect no other fate. It was weak and corrupt and 
divided and did not have the slightest chance against so 
determined and convinced an adversary. 

During the last two centuries of the Caliphate in Bagdad 
the real strength of Islam as a political power was Turkish. 
The Turks had been brought to Bagdad as the bodyguard of 
the Caliphs, with little thought that they would so soon as- 
sume the rule. First the Seljukian Turks (from the year 



298 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

1037) and then the Othmanli, or Ottoman Turks (from 
1299 to the present time) took the lead. The Arab, seem- 
ingly having had his day, retired into the background and 
has never been able to regain the position he once held. Dur- 
ing the period of the Seljuks occurred the crusades, when 
Christian Europe made the desperate attempt to wrest the 
holy sepulcher of our Lord from the Moslem, and, after tem- 
porary success, was hurled back by the followers of Moham- 
med. The Turks made Asia Minor completely ^loslem, 
crossed over into Europe and captured province after prov- 
ince, until finally in 1453 Constantinople fell and the old 
Eastern Empire came to an end. The tidal wave of Moham- 
medan advance was not stopped until late in the seventeenth 
century when Vienna was besieged, only to be relieved by the 
Polish King John Sobieski. But the real turn of the tide 
did not take place until the Greek War of Independence 
early in the nineteenth century. Since then the retrograde 
movement has been rapid, so that at the opening of the 
great war in 1914 Turkey in Europe consisted only of the 
city of Constantinople and a few square miles of adjacent 
territory. 

But to return to the early days of Hfe and vigor, Islam 
under the Turk expanded eastward over Afghanistan, Balu- 
chistan, and down into the plains of India. The forays into 
India began about the year A. D. 1000. In course of time 
Delhi became the capital of a Mohammedan empire, which 
under the Mogul emperors (1525-1707) was one of the 
most brilliant epochs of Indian as well as of Islamic history. 
During these years the faith penetrated more deeply into 
Central Asia, many Moslems entering China and joining 
with their fellow religionists already there. In 1507 Islam 
was carried by peaceful penetration into the southeast and 
found lodgment in the island world, where it is still spread- 
ing and making converts. Java with its population of twen- 
ty-five millions is practically Moslem, the center of the faith 
among the Malays. 



MOHAMMEDANISM 299 

The field of the mediaeval advance of Islam in Africa was 
the Sahara and the Sudan. The Sahara fell rapidly to 
Islam, the inducement to the Arabs being trade in ivory and 
slaves. They introduced the camel as they advanced, pene- 
trating farther and farther to the south and capturing some 
of the best people in northern Sudan. Then after a quies- 
cence of three hundred years, during which Islam remained 
almost stationary, the advance southward was begun again 
in our own day and threatens to submerge the continent. 
Africa will not long remain pagan; will she be Moslem or 
Christian? The odds are now greatly in favor of the reH- 
gion of the Arabian Prophet. Why this advance after cen- 
turies of inactivity ? So long as the slave-trade continued to 
exist the Arab traders could not desire the conversion of the 
Negroes, for by Moslem law they were forbidden from mak- 
ing slaves of fellow-Moslems — they all belonged to one great 
brotherhood. But when the trade in slaves was forever 
made impossible by European intervention it was now to the 
advantage of the traders to deal with the blacks as Moslems. 
Their wants became greater and their desires could be stim- 
ulated, as was impossible in their pagan condition. Then, 
too, when European governments in the last quarter of a 
century inaugurated the rule of law and order wars were 
brought to an end and the tribes were compelled to lay 
down their arms, thus taking away the one pagan protec- 
tion against Islam. For generations and even centuries they 
had sedulously excluded any Mohammedan under any pre- 
text. They feared the influence of Islam like a pestilence. 
But now the Mohammedan trader and school-teacher and 
missionary have access everywhere, and they are making 
the most of their opportunity. When to all this is added the 
actual patronage of Islam by certain governments for rea- 
sons of political expediency, the impression made on the 
native is most favorable to the religion of the Prophet — a 
strange commentary on the influence of so-called Christian 
nations. 



300 THE RELIGIONS OE MANKIND 

Thus Islam has advanced until to-day, with an estimated 
strength of two hundred millions, scattered all the way from 
China to the shores of the Atlantic in Africa and from the 
banks of the \'olga in Russia to the waters of the south seas, 
the religion of Mohammed is a world religion, the most 
powerful of all the rivals of Christianity in its attempt to 
win mankind. It has been said that Islam is a stepping-stone 
toward Christianity. Undoubtedly when a pagan tribe is 
converted it is raised to a slightly higher level. But, unfor- 
tunately, it is left there stranded with no possibility of fur- 
ther progress. Islam adds dignity to the savage, clothes 
him in a certain respectability, and brings him within the 
bound of a world-embracing brotherhood. These benefits, 
together with that of a belief in one great God, Allah, in- 
stead of cringing fear in the presence of a thousand spirits 
and demons, must be acknowledged in spite of the fact that 
the change in many cases is more seeming than real. But — 
and this is the final test — when Islam brings even greater 
sensuality, stimulates divorce and polygamy and, in so far 
as it dares, slavery ; when its presence always results in the 
seclusion and neglect of women, the religion of Islam can 
only be looked upon as a blight to every people among whom 
it has come. And as for being a stepping-stone, the proud 
and overbearing attitude which is always assumed in the 
presence of the followers of any other religion — and this is 
particularly true of Christians — would make Islam appear 
to be the greatest barrier to the progress of Christianity in 
the world to-day. 

But even Islam does not present a united front. Deep 
cleavages began soon to appear and have always been pres- 
ent. The most significant is that between the Sunnis and 
the Shiites. The Sunnis represent the great body of Mos- 
lems, the followers of the Sunna, or Traditions. The Shiites, 
or ''Followers," are the adherents of Ali, who married Mo- 
hammed's daughter Fatima and thus continued the Proph- 
et's line. The Shiites hold to ''the divine right of the de- 



MOHAMMEDANISM 301 

scendants of the Prophet through the children of AH and 
Fatima'" to be the rulers of the Islamic world. This claim 
is repudiated by the Sunnis, who have allowed the choice of 
the people to determine the question of the headship of the 
religion. The Shiites, who are about nine millions strong, 
are found principally in Persia, though like-minded believ- 
ers in Ali are widely scattered in various Moslem lands. To 
them Ali was the first Iman, or head of the religion, after 
the Prophet. He is raised to such a level that even Mo- 
hammed pales into insignificance before him. An Iman is 
imperative for every age as the religious authority for the 
people as well as their political ruler. There have been 
twelve of these Imans, the last of whom is still alive, though 
he has disappeared and exerts his influence invisibly. In the 
end a Mahdi, or guide, is to appear to restore all things and 
usher in the final consummation. The Messianic idea thus 
has its place in Islam, repudiated for the most part by the 
Sunnis but becoming "the vital nerve of the entire Shiite 
system."' When to their positive views the Shiites have 
added intolerance, even to fellow-Mohammedans not agree- 
ing with them, this division in their ranks appears as a 
serious impediment to unity of thought and purpose. Other 
movements, like that of the Wahabites, who more than a 
century ago in Arabia inaugurated a Puritan movement and 
strenuously opposed all innovations as contrary to the tradi- 
tions, and that of the Senussi in recent years, with their cen- 
ter in an oasis in the Sahara, who sought to stimulate a 
closer union between all Moslems, with the desire to make 
Islam again the great power she had once been in the world 
— such movements and others like them indicate restless- 
ness within the ranks and the desire to push the claims of 
Islam with greater zeal. 

But these divisions and tendencies are for the time being 



'Goldziher, Mohammed and Islam, p. 222. (Yale Univ. Press, 
New Haven, 1917.) 
' Goldziher, op. cit, p. 246. 



302 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

of lesser importance than the poHtical condition in which 
Islam finds herself in the world. The movement called Pan- 
Islamism, which had been stimulated for years by the Sultan 
of Turkey, was making real progress, and the European 
nations. Great Britain, Holland, and France, which had vast 
populations of Moslems in their colonial possessions, were 
watching anxiously the tendencies which were taking shape. 
Then came the war in 1914 and the Moslem world was rent 
in twain. Turkey allowed herself to become a pliable instru- 
ment in the hands of Germany and attempted to persuade 
and cajole the entire following of the Prophet into war on 
the same side. But Islam failed to show the unity which 
many fondly expected, and the dreams of a great united 
Pan-Islamic movement were doomed to disappointment. To 
add to the difficulties the Sherif of :Mecca, the guardian of 
the sacred cities of the faith, proclaimed the independence of 
the Hejaz and set up a government of his own. Under 
British protection he has held his place and may continue to 
do so for the future. What attitude will the Moslems scat- 
tered all over the world take? The Turkish Sultan has been 
recognized as the Caliph only by grace of necessity and the 
power he has for so long been able to wield. But with the 
sacred land of Mohammed in the hand of an Arab king, 
what will be the attitude of Islam? Shall the Caliphate con- 
tinue to be a perquisite of the Sublime Porte or shall it be 
transferred to other hands? And even more significantly, 
will Islam continue to claim the right to temporal power, or, 
under the stress of circumstances, will she be satisfied to be 
reckoned among the religious forces of the world, depending 
no longer on the power of the state but solely on her spirit- 
ual resources? It has been said that this is impossible in 
Islam, but no one in the present situation can predict the 
changes which are to take place. And among these changes 
none are more sure or more significant than those which 
are to transform the religions of the world into forms very 
diflferent from those we now see. Islam has been more 



MOHAMMEDANISM 303 

deeply affected by recent world movements than many in 
her own fold are willing to acknowledge, and it must eventu- 
ally become evident that she must accommodate herself to 
modern Hfe and thought — or be lost. 

Suggestions for Further Study 

D. S. Margoliouth, Mohammedanism (Home University Library). 

A short but excellent summary of the faith and its practices. 
P. De Lacy Johnstone, Muhammed and His Power (Edinburgh, 

1901). One of the best short accounts of the Prophet and his 

system. 
The Koran, translated by J. M. Rodwell (Everyman's Library). A 

convenient volume, with Suras arranged chronologically and notes. 
H. U. W. Stanton, The Teaching of the Qu/an (London, 1919). A 

short summary with a full index. 
D. B. Macdonald, Aspects of Islam (New York, 1911). One of the 

best interpretations, by a master. 
C Snouck Hurgronje, Mohammedanism (New York, 1916). A 

short but authoritative interpretation. 
George Foot Moore, History of Religions, Vol. H, Chaps. XVI- 

xxn. 



CHAPTER XII 
CHRISTIANITY 

Jesus Christ 

Little is known of the early life of Jesus Christ. Bom 
a few years before the year A. D. i in Bethlehem of Judaea, 
he lived in Nazareth, a city of Galilee, until he was about 
thirty years of age. We have no reason to doubt the tradi- 
tion that after the death of Joseph, the head of the family, 
Jesus became the main support of Mary and the younger 
children. He worked at his trade, that of a carpenter, and 
lived the life which would be expected of a religiously- 
minded young Hebrew. We have only one glimpse into his 
life and mind during all this period, and that was when Jesus 
was a boy of twelve. He went up with Joseph and Mary 
to Jerusalem to the feast of the Passover. Here he came 
into touch with the official teachers of the people and amazed 
them by his questions and his answers. He was not only 
religiously inclined but showed insight and discrimination 
beyond his years. Upon being questioned by his mother as 
to his reason for staying in the city and not starting with 
them on the homeward journey, Jesus seemed surprised that 
it had not occurred to them that the natural place for him 
to be was in his Father's house. He seemed already to show 
a sense of unique relationship with God, whom it was nat- 
ural for him to call Father. With this beginning at twelve 
we may imagine the inner development and preparation for 
his life task which must have taken place during the subse- 
quent eighteen ''silent years" at Nazareth, before he ap- 
peared in a new role as a teacher of the people. 

At about the age of thirty Jesus suddenly appeared at the 
Jordan, where John, a cousin of his, was performing the 



CHRISTIANITY 305 

rite of baptism on those who came professing a desire to 
amend their ways and live better lives. Jesus also came 
and, against the scruples of John, who saw that Jesus was 
in different case from the others, was baptized. It marked 
a turning-point, for with the outward ritual act came an 
inner spiritual experience of profound significance for Jesus. 
A voice assured him that he was in a unique sense his 
Father's ''beloved Son," in whom he was "well pleased." 
It seems to have been the consummation of his thought and 
prayer and eager yearning for many years. He had re- 
ceived his revelation. He was filled with a sense of mission, 
of having a work to do and a message to deliver, which to 
the end of his life did not leave him for a moment. Imme- 
diately after this new experience Jesus passed through a 
period of "temptation," in which he decided upon the prin- 
ciples and the methods of his work in bringing in the king- 
dom of God. This was his God-given task; how was it to 
be performed ? The kingdom must be ushered in by a clear 
emphasis on the spiritual rather than the physical element; 
by a firm reliance on God's goodness and power, which 
would repudiate any spectacular aids ; and by such a single- 
hearted allegiance to God that compromise with evil and 
subservience to the lower standards represented by the 
evil one would be instantly repudiated. Having passed 
through this crisis, Jesus went out and for a period, vari- 
ously estimated from one to three years, proclaimed the 
message of the new kingdom. 

He went from place to place in Palestine preaching in 
the synagogues and out-of-doors wherever the people con- 
gregated, and talking individually and to groups as they 
came to him with their questions and problems. He began 
to gather about him a little company of disciples, which soon 
grew to twelve and which accompanied him on all his jour- 
neys. He spent much time in giving them instruction and 
on several occasions sent them out to heal and to preach. 
Around this smaller and more intimate group a larger num- 



3o6 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

ber, who had been attracted by the teacher and healer, gath- 
ered and evidently followed him as far as their other duties 
would allow. He spent much of his time in and about Gali- 
lee, though on several notable occasions he went to Jerusa- 
lem, the religious center of Jewish life, and there came into 
contact with the leaders of the people. But whether with 
individuals or large audiences, whether among friends or 
bitter opponents, Jesus preserved the same poise and self- 
control. He was always simple, candid, and sincere, and 
carried about with him such an atmosphere of quiet assur- 
ance that what he said always struck home, and caused men 
and women in spite of themselves to recognize his right to 
speak and be heard. His words carried their own authority 
and did not need the backing of rabbis and teachers and 
writings of recognized worth. He was heard with equal 
pleasure and understanding by the ignorant and learned, so 
simple and concrete were his words. Yet lurking behind 
these vivid stories, taken from the life all knew so well, 
were the most profound and fundamental truths, which the 
careless were quite likely to miss. Jesus even cast his 
thought into story form, that of the parable, for the very 
purpose of testing his hearers. It did not require high intel- 
lectual attainment but moral sincerity w^as necessary to 
probe beneath the surface and find the hidden truth, which 
to the vulgar and the inert would mean little or nothing. 
At other times his thought took the form of epigrams, 
which among the peoples of the East are so dearly loved, and 
still again he would use the forms of the apocalyptic writers 
of his age. Whether all the imagery and the invective which 
is placed in the mouth of Jesus in the great apocalyptic dis- 
courses were given out by him in just this form, or in a few- 
cases at all, is an exceedingly difficult question. What we 
may feel sure of is that he was not only a preacher of pleas- 
ant and comforting things, but could be as severe as the 
divine judgment itself in his denunciations of sin and un- 
righteousness, of hypocrisy and unreahty in religion. 



CHRISTIANITY 307 

Jesus came to establish a kingdom, and this was the bur- 
den of his message. But he never forgot that the form of 
the kingdom and many things connected with its coming 
were of lesser significance than the inner facts and principles 
on which it was based. The first of these was man's rela- 
tionship with God. He had been called Father before, but 
never with the fullness of meaning which it carried after 
Jesus had by word and act shown what it meant. God is 
our Father, with all the tender love and unfailing strength 
which the term "Father" has taken on through Jesus' words 
and example of filial trust. And quite as much did the term 
take on new meaning through Jesus' example of compas- 
sion and solicitude over suffering and sinning men and 
women. It was a new revelation in the world, and has 
opened the eyes of men since that time to a new conception 
of the character of God, for nothing like that had ever been 
seen among men. He taught that this Father was ready and 
anxious to forgive all who came to him without respect to 
race or position in society or any other outward distinction. 
The condition of the heart was the only thing which mat- 
tered. The seriousness of the issues of life were not mini- 
fied, and terrible things were spoken with respect to the fate 
of the obdurate, only it was never to be forgotten that men 
were always dealing with a Father whose compassion would 
never fail and who could save to the uttermost. 

Jesus was not a social or political reformer. We cannot 
even tell what he felt and thought about certain questions 
which were agitating the men of his day, not to speak of all 
the movements with which his name has been connected 
from that time to this. Yet he laid down principles of the 
relations of man to man which have been revolutionary in 
the history of the world. He recognized none of the arbi- 
trary distinctions which divide men, and on the basis of his 
attitude a true democracy has been made possible. He did 
not expHcitly condemn slavery, but men have only been made 
free where his example and his teaching have been made 



3o8 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

known. He did not inveigh against the forms of government 
which prevailed in his day, but all tyrannies and autocracies 
have had reason to fear when oppression and disregard of 
the rights of man have been seen in the light of his teaching. 
He did not proclaim a new social order, but the upheaval of 
the present day, which is shaking the very foundations of 
civilization, would never have come had it not been for the 
vision of all men and women possessing equal rights and 
opportunities which truly expresses the spirit of Jesus. 
Jesus was always ready to urge that his kingdom was spirit- 
ual, to be realized within the hearts of men, but the effect of 
such a conception has been to work its way out into all the 
relationships in which men find themselves and bring them 
into harmony with his ideals. 

Jesus was not only a teacher ; he was a worker of miracles. 
The Gospels tell us that he cured the sick, opened the eyes 
of the blind, fed the hungry, stilled the storm, and even 
raised the dead. Much was made of these wonders by for- 
mer generations of Christians, who used them as proofs of 
the divine character of the one who performed them. Such 
use of these incidents does not produce the eflfect it once did 
and is being discarded. A closer study of the attitude of 
Jesus toward his own miraculous power clearly indicates 
that he minimized its significance. He would have men 
secure a better perspective and realize that moral power was 
on a higher level than the ability to work marvels. With 
this in view it scarcely seems congruous to use the miracles 
in a way which could scarcely be acceptable to Jesus himself. 
What they really do is to provide a window into the inner 
life of Jesus, which presents a far more wonderful scene 
than merely the ability to do what others could not. It 
shows the heart of compassion which was beating in his 
breast, leading him to acts of mercy and kindness which 
involved the use of all the powers at his command. It was 
at the point of his unbounded compassion, which led him at 
times almost against his better judgment to give of himself 



CHRISTIANITY 309 

to relieve suffering and sorrow and want, that the great dif- 
ference between Jesus and themselves must have become 
evident to his disciples. He lived vicariously — had it not 
been so, his death would never have assumed the significance 
it did for the disciples of that and all subsequent ages. 

Jesus was living among sinning men and women and was 
constantly dealing with the malady at the root of human life. 
His analysis of character and his ability to read the inner 
motives of men give ample evidence of the deepest moral 
insight and sincerity. Yet with all this he was not conscious 
of sin in his own life and was willing to throw out the chal- 
lenge to anyone to lay his finger on any spot or blemish. 
That a man should be able to state an ideal which still goes 
beyond the possibiHty of the deepest ethical thinker to im- 
prove is an achievement unmatched in the history of ethical 
theory, but that this teacher should match his ideal with his 
life, should live it out so that the example is more beautiful 
than the precept, is to raise Jesus to an unapproachable pin- 
nacle of excellence. We must use words which cannot be 
applied to any other of the sons of men. That was the im- 
pression he made then, and it is the same to-day. A unique 
event had transpired — a Being had trodden our earth of 
whom it could be said that he had not sinned. How to 
classify such an one has been the problem of problems in 
theology since his appearance. 

But of all the impressions Jesus made the strongest was 
that he was in touch with God his Father and that this was 
the explanation of all the wonderful things about him. His 
prayer-life was so different from that of the disciples that 
they came asking him to teach them how to pray. He was 
with them day and night, and yet with all the closeness of 
the fellowship they realized that their Master had a compan- 
ionship which was more real and vital to him. He lived in 
the presence of the spiritual world and seemed perfectly 
at home. God was to him a personal Being with whom a 
life might be shared, not some power or indefinite being 



310 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

far off to whom we must send our prayers and who hves 
in a world so strange as not to be able to enter into the mean- 
ing of our mundane life. But this above all else is what 
men want to know. Is there a being at the center of the 
universe who cares? How can we be sure? In the pres- 
ence of Jesus their questions were answered. In some mar- 
velous manner their association with him carried more with 
it than they had thought possible. They began to realize 
that to be with Jesus gave them a sense of nearness to God, 
and this continued until these Jews, dyed-in-the-wool mono- 
theists as they were, found themselves offering an homage 
to their Master which was little different from their attitude 
toward God, and were doing it with no sense of incon- 
gruity. 

Jesus, however, was not only winning followers and bring- 
ing them close to God ; he had come into collision with the 
religious authorities of his people, and in the end lost his 
life at their hands. They were formalists and as such had 
not averted the danger of losing sight of the vital principles 
of their religion. Jesus was an innovator, and felt free to 
act in accordance with the inner spirit of the old precepts 
even where by doing so he ran counter to the letter of the 
law. Jesus also failed to fulfill the popular expectation of 
what the expected Messiah should be, a military commander 
and king, who should lead the Jewish nation on to victory 
over the Roman Eagles and establish again the throne of 
David forever. This was unforgivable to the typical scribe 
or Pharisee of Jesus' time, and they determined to nulHfy 
his influence even though it meant his death. As time elapsed 
and they became the more incensed no other way seemed 
open, so they set about deliberately to destroy and put an 
end to his influence. The break had been coming for some 
time, over the use to be made of the Sabbath. When the 
leaders heard that he allowed his disciples to pluck corn as 
they passed through the fields and that he even healed a man 
on the Sabbath day, they were scandalized. The final op- 



CHRISTIANITY 311 

portunity came when Jesus appeared in Jerusalem at the 
feast of the Passover. He was seized and, after having had 
a preliminary hearing before the Jewish high priest and 
Sanhedrin, was taken before Pontius Pilate, the Roman pro- 
curator, and was condemned to death. He was crucified, 
together with two criminals, and died at the end of six 
hours' agony on the cross. His body was taken down by 
friends in the early evening and laid in a rock-hewn tomb. 
The hopes of his disciples were dashed to the ground, and 
undoubtedly the Jewish leaders and the Roman authorities 
thought they had rid themselves of an exceedingly trouble- 
some creature. 

But such was not to be, for a very remarkable thing hap- 
pened the third day after. To the utter amazement of his 
disciples, who had not recovered from the paralyzing effect 
of their grief and disappointment, Jesus appeared to them 
so unmistakably that they were convinced that death had 
not been able to hold its victim and that Jesus was alive. 
Their new enthusiasm, the founding of the Christian Church 
on the assurance of the presence of the living Christ, the 
adoption of the first day of the week as a memorial of the 
day when Jesus reappeared alive — all these historic facts 
bear witness to the genuineness of the disciples' testimony 
that the same Jesus who had journeyed with them, who had 
died and had been laid away in the tomb, was raised from 
the dead, their living Master forevermore. They immedi- 
ately went out to preach "the gospel of the resurrection,'* 
and with that the history of the Christian Church was begun. 

Development of Life and Teaching 

The earliest Christians were Jews. The only difference 
between them and the non-Christian Jews was that they 
believed that Jesus was the expected Messiah and the others 
did not. They felt it incumbent on them to observe the reg- 
ulations and take part in the ceremonies of the Jewish faith. 



312 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

Coupled with this, of course, was their enthusiastic belief 
that Jesus was the Christ and that in him all the hopes and 
aspirations which had filled the minds of their people for 
hundreds of years were in process of being fulfilled. It was 
hard even for the disciples of Jesus to learn the lesson that 
it was a spiritual kingdom which was to be inaugurated and 
not a political kingdom, whose capital was to be in Jeru- 
salem. There were these two aspects of the Messianic 
hope, one kingly and political and the other spiritual and 
sacrificial, and even to this day the two are at times sadly 
confused. These early disciples took it for granted that 
the way to Christ was through the portals of Judaism. 
Already the idea of Gentiles becoming fellow-religionists 
had become familiar through the inclusion of proselytes in 
the Jewish community. Some came in completely by not 
only accepting belief in Jehovah and the obligation of the 
moral law, but by submitting to the rite of circumcision. 
They were known as Proselytes of Righteousness. Others 
were worshipers of Jehovah and kept the moral law, but 
were not fully amalgamated with the community by the 
distinctive rite of their religion. All this was well known 
to the early Christians, and it did not occur to them that 
Gentiles should come into their ranks in any other way. 
Let them first become circumcised, then they would be eli- 
gible to church membership. 

This rigid theory did not continue long without challenge. 
One of the most interesting developments which may be 
traced in the Book of Acts is the movement toward greater 
liberality. Much is made of the conversion of Cornelius the 
centurion because he was a Roman, a "God-fearing man," 
as such proselytes were called in the New Testament, who 
was baptized by Peter irrespective of his uncircumcised 
condition. It was looked upon as a most important step, 
only to be taken under the direct guidance of God's Spirit. 
But the really significant move occurred when Paul forced 
the issue and brought matters to a settlement in the Jeru- 






CHRISTIANITY 313 

salem council, described in Acts 15. He had become quite 
free in admitting Gentiles, and had come to the conviction 
that the new religion ought to stand in its own right and not 
be in the leading strings of Judaism. Opposed to him were 
the ''Judaizers," who contended that the obligation to become 
circumcised and obey the ceremonial law was as binding on 
the Christians as on the Jews, Paul brought the matter to 
the elders at Jerusalem, and after careful deliberation the 
momentous decision was reached that the Gentiles might 
be admitted to the Christian churches irrespective of any 
relation to Judaism. It was the first crisis through which 
the early church passed, and from this time it became inde- 
pendent, and the development which followed was that of 
its own genius, as the inner meaning of the faith began to 
unfold and the far-reaching communities came into contact 
with the world of thought and action round about. 

The Old Testament was the Bible of the early Christians. 
Only gradually were the books of the New Testament writ- 
ten and accepted by the churches. The New Testament 
presupposes the existence of a vigorous religious life, out 
of which the Gospels and letters came. The words and acts 
of Jesus were handed down by word of mouth and were 
doubtless arranged in order for catechetical classes before 
they took shape as we have them now. Not for about two 
hundred years was the canon fixed, and even then certain 
books, like the Revelation, were looked on askance by cer- 
tain sections of the church. Many of the doctrines which 
were taught, like belief in the one God and the obligation 
of the moral law, were taken over from Judaism. More 
and more completely, however, the meaning of the revela- 
tion of Jesus Christ took possession of their minds and 
transformed even the old truths into something more living 
and real. He became the central fact of their faith and was 
raised to a place in their thinking commensurate with the 
place he occupied in their hearts and as dynamic in their 
daily living. 



314 TIIK RELIGIOXS OF MAXKIXD 

The second Christian century is one of the most obscure; 
we know Httle of the important changes which were taking 
place. The churches came into contact with a movement 
or tendency called Gnosticism. These *'Knowers" had doubt- 
less come into contact with a philosophy of life emanating 
from Persia or even farther east and mingled with Greek 
theories according to which a fundamental cleavage ran 
right down through the universe, a cleavage not only between 
right and wrong, but even more fundamentally between 
spirit and matter. The two are separated by a chasm so 
deep and wide that it would seem almost hopeless to bridge 
it. Matter was looked upon as intrinsically and inevitably 
evil simply because it was matter. It could not be saved; 
it must be left behind if the spirit of man were to be eman- 
cipated. For it was just there the problem pressed — man 
was both spirit and matter. He sought to be free, yet was 
held down as by an unsupportable burden by the flesh and 
its desires. The only hope was that by repudiating the flesh 
and by giving one's self to ascetic deprivations the body 
would have less and less hold and the spirit would be free 
to rise slowly through degrees of divine attainment to the 
plane of pure spirituality for which it longed. God, who 
was the very essence of spirit, was far distant from this 
earth. He created and sustains the processes of the material 
world by subservient beings, or emanations, which exist as 
a kind of heavenly hierarchy in varying grades, the lowest 
of which have actual contact with men and their affairs. 
This movement secured access to the church itself and 
formed one or two sects about which little is known. They 
wore themselves out in course of time without vitiating the 
central stream of Christian life. The influence of the move- 
ment remained, however, in an ascetic attitude which has 
been far from wholesome in the church. Continuing to 
believe that the body was inevitably corrupt and that its 
desires, particularly the sexual impulse, were evil and should 
be suppressed, a ban was put on marriage and ceHbacy was 



CHRISTIANITY 315 

declared to be a higher state. In one section of Syria no one 
was to be baptized who was living in the married state. This 
extreme was not followed farther west, but the tendency 
maintained itself in the praise of virginity and the enforced 
celibacy of monks and nuns and of the priesthood of the 
church. 

It was not long before the new faith came into contact 
with the most powerful intellectual weapon ever forged by 
the human mind, Greek thought. The origins of Christian- 
ity were Hebraic, its forms of thought and the method of 
presentation were derived from the Old Testament and the 
habit of mind of the Jewish people. But even before the 
new reHgion arose Judaism had come into contact with 
Greek thought, notably in the cosmopolitan city of Alex- 
andria in Egypt. There lived and wrote at about the time of 
Christ Philo, a Jewish philosopher who was deeply tinc- 
tured with Greek learning. He made use of the conception 
of the Logos, the word or the expression of the distant God, 
a conception which was taken by the John of the fourth 
Gospel and used to convey one of the most profound of the 
great Christian ideas. It was inevitable that Christianity, 
too, should sooner or later be influenced by the same power- 
ful instrument, and be compelled to think out its doctrines 
anew. At the very center of the faith was Christ. He had 
saved men and women from their sins, he had given them 
the hope of everlasting life, he had furnished a new moral 
dynamic — in all these respects what Christianity had to 
present was new and startHng. Nothing like it had been 
known in the world of Paganism. But a question began to 
press itself home among the more thoughtful as to the kind 
of being this Christ was. The discussion took many forms, 
but the conception of God and the relation of Christ to God 
was the burden of every argument. Jesus was a human 
being, that was quite evident from his life among men, but 
these Christian thinkers could not be satisfied to leave him 
there. He was man, but more than man. This might be 



3i6 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

easy enough to say, and would fit in well with the experi- 
ence of the many followers of Jesus who had learned to 
associate him with God and to worship him, but it was quite 
a different thing when the attempt was made to form an 
exact statement in the terms of the dominant Greek 
philosophy. 

How could a being be God and man at the same time? 
There were no human analogies to which appeal might be 
made. Two marked tendencies appeared, one to make Jesus 
Christ the highest of all the creatures God had made, far 
above any other being known in the universe, and yet a 
creature below the dignity of God himself. The other was 
to take the bold step of asserting that Jesus was truly 
man and at the same time truly God, that he was not a 
creature, but of the very essence of God, that he was as 
much a part of God as the Father himself. This is the 
meaning of the decision reached at the first general council of 
the church held at Xlcea in 325. Arius contended that Jesus 
was of "like substance" with the Father, the highest of God's 
creation, while Athanasius carried the council with him in 
asserting that Jesus was of the "same substance," and could 
not be separated from God without doing away with God 
himself. The Christian Church has gone with Athanasius. 
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity has passed through 
many vicissitudes and may have many more crises yet to 
meet, but so long as men are brought into the presence of 
Christ and see in him their Saviour and Lord the problem 
will not down. Where shall such a being be placed to do 
justice to the impress of the facts on eager men and women 
whose lives have been transformed by his touch? It can- 
not be among men, and if higher, where else than in the 
very being of God himself? And to do that means some 
form of the doctrine of the Trinity, for the doctrine of the 
Holy Spirit follows closely on that of the Christ. The 
final solution remains still to be discovered. It may be that 
it will never be solved to entire satisfaction, but that will not 



CHRISTIANITY 317 

alter the situation — so long as lives are being made over in 
the image of Jesus Christ, so long will men insist upon lift- 
ing him up to the only level which will satisfy their sense of 
the eternal fitness of things. 

All these discussions took place in the East, which was 
essentially metaphysical. The day of the West was not yet 
come, but it was gathering strength during the years and 
in the fourth and fifth centuries we come to the command- 
ing figure of Augustine (354-430), the theologian of the 
Western church. Now the West was the complete anti- 
thesis of the East; it was preeminently practical, concerned 
less about metaphysical distinctions than the problems of 
church organization. It accepted the doctrinal decisions of 
the four great orthodox councils as a matter of course; it 
knew how to submit to recognized authority. When it 
came to further developments its genius was shown in the 
formulation of the extremely practical doctrine of salva- 
tion, of God's grace in receiving sinners and placing them 
on a standing as citizens of the heavenly kingdom. This was 
the great work of Augustine, who had become Bishop of 
Hippo in North Africa. Together with this unfolding of 
the doctrine of salvation another movement was in progress, 
that of building up the church in theory and in practice as 
the representative of God on earth. According to Augus- 
tine man was a poor helpless creature, lost in sin and misery, 
until God should deign to take him and by his irresistible 
grace put him on his feet and make him one of his elect 
children. Now, when the church came more and more to 
stand between God and men and claim possession of the 
only means — the sacraments — through which men could gain 
access to God, the power of the church over the conscience 
and destiny of men became unbounded. This assertion of 
the church of the right to dominate the life of men, individ- 
ually and in every relationship even up to the high position 
of king and emperor, is the dominant note of the Middle 
Ages. The modern world could only be ushered in by break- 



3i8 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

ing through the authority of the church and setting free the 
mind of man from the intolerable bondage. 

This is what the Renaissance and the Reformation did. 
They gathered into striking power the forces which had 
been developing for generations and proclaimed that man 
was free. What the Renaissance of the fifteenth century 
did for the intellect — and with many unfortunate features 
withal — that the Reformation in the next century, led by 
Martin Luther, accomplished for the conscience and the 
spiritual life. Its primary religious accomplishment was 
that it tore the church away from its position between God 
and man. It declared clearly and unhesitatingly that the 
soul of man stood immediately in the presence of its Maker 
and that it could have direct dealing with him without cer- 
emonies or ritual or sacraments or priest. The church had 
its place, but not as an essential mediator between men 
and God. It was fallible as the men who led it and com- 
posed it were fallible and had not the right to demand un- 
questioning obedience to its behests. So much the Refor- 
mation settled for all those who have entered into the 
heritage of its daring leaders. But having overturned the 
authority of the visible church, it set up another authority in 
its place, that of the Bible. Undoubtedly all Protestants 
recognize the right of the Bible to command their lives, pro- 
vided, of course, they be given full right of interpretation. 
But the danger has been that the Bible should be made the 
final fact in Christianity. Protestants have been called the 
People of the Book, and this has been carried almost if not 
completely to the point of bibliolatry. On the other hand 
there are those who would not dim the luster of the Book 
nor diminish its rightful authority but who at the same time 
see clearly that the revelation contained in the Book found 
its culmination in a Person. So Christianity as its very 
name indicates is in its truest sense the religion of a Person. 
In this it differs from both Judaism and Islam, which are 
far more truly religions of a Book and of obedience to its 



CHRISTIANITY 319 

requirements. Christians have a Book, which is necessary 
to apprehend the Person, but the Person is primary, the cli- 
mactic and distinguishing point in the reHgion. 

One of the deplorable results of the Reformation was the 
emphasis laid on orthodoxy. Men were to be saved by be- 
lieving, but belief was defined, not in the Pauline sense of 
trust, but as an act of the intellect, accepting a set of propo- 
sitions as true. On this basis the important thing is to be- 
lieve the right doctrines, so doctrine-making became the 
occupation of the age, which lasted for a hundred years and 
more. The great confessions, which still are the creedal 
basis of our church life, came into being. But with all this 
insistence on correctness of belief the churches did not 
thrive. They were buried under the burden of being com- 
pelled to believe so exactly and so much in order to be 
saved. Orthodoxy was the sine qua non, and acceptance of 
doctrines covered a multitude of faults and even sins, which 
were more or less likely to be winked at provided men ac- 
cepted the standards which were imposed. The real reli- 
gious life of these long generations in the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries and even the nineteenth lay in other 
directions. The Pietistic movement in Germany, beginning 
under Spener and Francke late in the seventeenth century, 
and the Evangelical Revival in England, under the lead of 
John Wesley and George Whitefield in the eighteenth, 
brought tens of thousands of the common people into an 
immediate experience of communion with God, which 
warmed their hearts and sent them out rejoicing to tell 
others the good news of God's forgiving love and the victory 
they were having over sin. 

With this religious quickening came a new sense of social 
and moral obligation. The emancipation of slaves, the refor- 
mation of the prison system, the beginnings of the Sunday 
school movement, and the founding of the great missionary 
societies, near the close of the eighteenth century and in the 
early decades of the nineteenth, form a fitting sequel to the 



320 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

stirring of a real religious life among the Protestant 
churches. Slow to appreciate the significance of social serv- 
ice, the churches have in recent years taken upon themselves 
in a new way the burden of humanity and have made a social 
creed a part of their working program. The work has only 
yet begun, but convictions are being born in the hearts of 
an increasing number each year that the church can never 
fulfill its duty and be true to its Master without devoting 
itself to the task of making this world over again in all its 
relationships, that justice and love, mutual forbearance and 
respect, and an equal opportunity for all shall be the mark of 
our civilization. 

And now again Christianity finds herself in the midst of 
an intellectual crisis. It has been in progress for a half 
century and more and no one as yet quite sees the way out. 
The doctrine of evolution, appHed now to the social and 
historical sciences as well as to inanimate nature, and the 
methods of literary and historical criticism, whose sweep 
nothing escapes, have brought the intellect of the world face 
to face with the necessity of a new interpretation. It can- 
not be escaped. Should Christianity fail to use the oppor- 
tunity to make a reappraisal of its documents and its doc- 
trines in the light of the new methods and the new knowl- 
edge, its day would have passed. But this is just what 
Christianity has done in the past and what it shows vigorous 
signs of doing now. And when it shall have discovered the 
eternal and disengaged it from the changing and the tem- 
porary, and when it shall have learned to use with greater 
intelligence the instruments which are now being put into 
its hands, the religion of Jesus Christ shall again lead the 
way into conquests of the mind and spirit greater than any 
in the years that have gone by. 

The Church and Its Expansion 

That Jesus did not undertake a mission without the bor- 
ders of his own land is quite evident; that he did not con- 



CHRISTIANITY 321 

template an extension of his kingdom into all the world, as 
some would maintain, is contrary not only to certain sayings 
which have come down to us, but to his general attitude and 
bearing. He who saw ''all the kingdoms of the world, and 
the glory of them" at the very inception of his ministry, and 
he who was steeped in the message of the Old Testament 
prophets, with their broad outlook, which extended out to 
the very bounds of the then known world — such a one could 
scarcely fail to see down through the years a kingdom which 
would be as inclusive as the human race. And this may be 
held despite the fact that Jesus gave implicit instruction to 
his disciples, when he sent them out to preach and to heal, 
to go to none save the "lost sheep of the house of Israel," 
and despite the uncertain testimony of this verse or that 
which has been questioned by textual criticism. Surely, the 
Gospel of John rightly interprets the inner meaning of 
Jesus' life and teaching when it shows him with his eyes 
fixed on the wide world, and tearing down Jewish as well 
as Samaritan pretensions in declaring that neither at Jeru- 
salem nor yet on Mount Gerizim was the place where the 
Father should be worshiped. God is a Spirit, and all that is 
required is that he shall be worshiped "in spirit and truth," 
a condition which can be met anywhere. This declaration 
has been called the "Charter of Universal Worship." 

The disciples in the earliest day failed to realize what 
Jesus really meant. It remained for the imperial-minded 
Paul to catch the vision of the full sweep of his Master's 
kingdom. He made Christianity a world religion. In his 
own person he carried the Gospel into the Greek world 
of Ephesus and Corinth and Athens, and was not satisfied 
until he had reached Rome. The whole motive of the 
book of Acts, according to Harnack, is to trace this ad- 
vance, from a corner of the empire to the imperial capi- 
tal itself. When once it was domiciled there the new reli- 
gion could claim to be in the full tide of the world's Hfe, 
and might rest assured that, given time, it would reach the 



322 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

farthest extremities of the imperial regime, for in a Hteral 
sense "All roads lead to Rome," and from Rome back again 
to the bounds of the civilized world. It took about three 
hundred years to accomplish this result. When Constantine, 
the ruler of the united empire, called the Council of Nicea 
in 325, Christianity had triumphed. For many years pagan- 
ism lingered on, showing considerable strength where Chris- 
tianity had not as yet penetrated deeply, but its doom was 
sealed. Constantine recognized that it was the one solid, 
dependable unity in his empire, and espoused its cause. Not 
that he was a devout man willing to bind his life by the 
moral restraints of the religion, but that he saw its worth 
and recognized that he must lean on it if he were to con- 
sohdate the gains which had come by his victories over 
his rivals. 

During the three hundred years of its conflict Christianity 
had undergone a number of bitter and bloody persecutions. 
It had overcome the strenuous opposition of the Eastern 
cults, like Mithraism, which for a time had spread like wild- 
fire, and it had given ample demonstration of an inner power 
which was possessed by no other religion and which carried 
it on to almost inevitable victory. Its works of mercy and 
help, which were like a balm in a sorely tried world, its 
strenuous insistence on the acceptance of a new moral stand- 
ard, unknown before and scoflFed at by a degenerate race of 
pleasure-seekers, the deliverance which it promised to men 
and women held in bondage by vicious habits and to those 
who were longing after spiritual freedom, gave the religion 
of Jesus a leverage which enabled it to accomplish wonders 
in that Roman world. Not that all was at peace within. 
Different standards prevailed, heresy began to show its head, 
and leaders were advancing theories and recommending 
practices which did not command the approval of others 
and which at times sadly rent the fabric of church life. But 
what is clear is that the testimony of the church to the 
leadership of a living Christ and the presence of the Spirit 



CHRISTIANITY 323 

within was made good, and men began to see that what the 
Christians professed was not a cunningly devised fable but 
a new power. 

The adoption of the church by Constantine was a remark- 
able testimony to the presence of a new force in the Western 
world, with which no other could be compared. What hap- 
pened in the decades which followed, when the recently per- 
secuted faith was not only released from the dangers which 
had constantly hung over it, but was placed in the position of 
favor and of authority, is not pleasant reading. In order to 
win the more readily the many pagans who still were to be 
found and to make itself less forbidding to the elite and the 
cultured in the cities and at court, the church lowered its 
standards, and suffered immeasurably in its inner spirit and 
life. Its opposition to the loose living which prevailed every- 
where was not so genuine, and the admission of pagan prac- 
tices and rites into the church contaminated the purity of 
its testimony. Thus saint- and image-worship took the place 
of the old polytheism and idolatry, and various masses which 
arose had a most suspicious likeness to old heathen cere- 
monies. The church had conquered the world in outward 
conquest, but the world had infected the church with its 
pagan spirit. Undoubtedly, much of this took place uncon- 
sciously and very gradually, but the influence was just the 
same. The church had become a great compact organiza- 
tion under the theory of the monarchical episcopacy, and this 
meant that it must act in the manner of such organizations. 
Political expediency overbalanced all other considerations 
and made of the church a great worldly power seeking by all 
means to retain its ascendency. And when the unity of the 
church, particularly in the active West, was assured by the 
rise of the bishop of Rome to a place of commanding power, 
its future could no longer be in doubt, despite the barbarian 
inroads which threatened to engulf the old civilization in 
their irresistible advance. The church which centered in 
Rome was the one immovable rock in the welter of upheaval 



324 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

and change. It held its own until the world settled down 
again, and, with all our criticism and condemnation of irreg- 
ularity and abuse, it must be credited with saving the day for 
Christianity in a time when the very foundations seemed to 
be crumbling. 

During the Middle Ages the church succeeded in winning 
the peoples of Northern Europe. The Kelts in France and 
the British Isles, the Teutonic peoples who flooded westward 
on the track of the retreating Kelts, the Slavs of central and 
eastern Europe were all reached in turn. From the begin- 
nings, when Ulfilas preached to the Goths in the region 
north of Constantinople and Martin of Tours was doing 
his apostolic work in France in the fourth century, until 
the Lithuanians finally accepted the faith in the fifteenth 
is a period of more than a thousand years. The really in- 
tensive work was accomplished, however, in about half that 
time, from Gregory I, the ''Great" (Pope 590-604), to 
Gregory VII, Hildebrand (1073-1085). During that period 
the northern countries almost swarmed with monks. With 
a zeal which has never been surpassed these ardent servants 
of the church went to every tribe, and at the end of their 
labors there were none left who did not acknowledge Jesus 
as Lord and count themselves members of the Catholic 
Church. The annals of Christian devotion would be lacking 
some of the most illustrious examples were it not for Pat- 
rick of Ireland, Columba of lona, Augustine of Kent, Boni- 
face of Thuringia, Anskar of the far frozen north, and many 
scores of others, who in the name of Christ counted not their 
lives dear unto themselves, but in utter self-abandonment 
went to the most inaccessible islands and the most hostile 
peoples to tell them the message which had taken possession 
of their own souls. They have left a priceless heritage of 
courage and devotion which no criticism of their methods 
can dim. 

The net result of their labors was that northern Europe 
was completely won to the church and to at least nominal 



CHRISTIANITY 325 

acceptance of its Christ. Unfortunately, it was so frequently 
only a nominal acceptance that vital religion seems never to 
have come to its own among large parts of the population. 
With little training before baptism and with no adequate 
instruction in the years which followed, the people remained 
in ignorance of the true meaning of Christianity. Pagan 
practices were not uprooted and attendance at the services 
and the performance of the prescribed rites and ceremonies 
meant little more to a vast majority than the practices they 
had left behind, except that they were grander and more 
impressive and carried with them the surer promise of favor 
with God and of the life beyond. With ignorance almost 
unchecked and loose living tardily rebuked, especially among 
the powerful, the conditions left much to be desired. The 
church was strong, so strong that the people were held in 
terror of the penalties which it could inflict, and even em- 
perors were cowed into submission. The Middle Ages pre- 
sent the strange contrast of saintly devotion unsurpassed and 
of churchly power misused to bind the lives of men in a 
grip which must be broken before any progress could be 
made. 

When the great liberation came in the fifteenth and six- 
teenth centuries a new expansion might well be looked for. 
A new world had been laid before the wondering gaze of 
Europe by the discovery of the Americas and by the finding 
of a sea route to India and the East. For hundreds of years, 
particularly since the crusades, Islam had stood as a barrier 
between West and East. Europe knew little of the teeming 
populations beyond and had strange ideas of their condi- 
tion. But now the veil of mystery was to be taken down 
and new empires were to be founded by the youthful Euro- 
pean nations in far off seas. The Roman Catholic Church 
at once took advantage of the splendid opportunity and sent 
its missionaries east and west. The daring Jesuits, followed 
by other orders, went through incredible hardships to carry 
their message to Canada, South America, and to India, 



326 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

China, and Japan. Strange to say, Protestantism did not 
respond. Her task was an arduous one, to conserve the 
results of the upheaval in Europe, but, even more than that, 
her mind was occupied w^ith the making of creeds, and was 
more or less blinded by impossible methods of interpreta- 
tion, which led to the conclusion that there was no longer 
a call to the church to undertake a mission to the heathen. 
That had been done by the original apostles, and if the na- 
tions were not now Christian that was their own fault ! 

But the Pietistic movement in Germany and the Evangeli- 
cal Revival in England stirred the hearts of men and led to 
earnest questioning concerning the non-Christian world and 
the conviction that the Gospel must be carried wherever it 
was not known. At the end of the eighteenth century, under 
the leadership of William Carey and his associates, action 
was taken, first by the Baptists, then by other bodies both 
within and outside the Established Church, until on both 
sides of the Atlantic and on the Continent of Europe Prot- 
estantism had taken seriously the task of evangehzing the 
whole world. This has been one of the chief notes of church 
life in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In various 
conferences the denominations have met to counsel and plan 
their work together. The culminating point was reached 
before the World War in the World Missionary Conference 
held in Edinburgh in 1910. Here for the first time all Prot- 
estantism was represented and by union in prayer and praise 
and in loyalty to a common Lord, reaffirmed its essential 
union in faith and purpose, thus giving practical expression 
to the growing desire that all should be one. The new con- 
sciousness of solidarity as they faced a common task has 
seemed to many to be the harbinger of a new day, when the 
unhappy divisions among God's people shall be healed and 
they shall veritably advance "like a mighty army." So 
strong was the impression made by this gathering that 
Professor A. E. Garvie has made bold to declare that the 
Edinburgh Conference may prove to be of greater signifi- 



CHRISTIANITY 327 

cance to the highest interests of the church than the Council 
of Nicea! 

And after this came the World War, which tore Christen- 
dom in two and set brother against brother along many- 
fronts. It revealed the awful fact that the Gospel had not 
penetrated deeply enough beneath the surface to make such 
a tragedy impossible, that while the message of peace had 
been proved the very voice of God in individual hearts and 
in countless churches and denominations, it had never been 
seriously applied to society at large and among the na- 
tions. The question was frequently broached whether Chris- 
tianity had been found wanting, to receive the reply that it 
had never been tried at just the point where the selfish ambi- 
tions of nations were likely to clash. The smug satisfaction 
which possessed the souls of many good people, who relied 
on a civilization which had been made more or less by Chris- 
tianity, is gone. A civilization which is not genuinely actu- 
ated by the spirit of Jesus is a poor reed on which to lean. 
To have learned this is exceedingly valuable, and places 
before the Christian church a task of the first magnitude. 
A reconstruction, which involves every feature of human 
life and every relation in which men find themselves, is the 
work which lies ahead, and so closely are the peoples related 
and interrelated to-day that it involves an approach which 
shall touch every section of the world simultaneously. Noth- 
ing like it has ever been faced before by the Christian church. 
Such a gospel must be preached as shall transform individ- 
ual lives, make the denominations like cooperating regiments 
in the same army, bring peace and good will in society on the 
basis of justice and mutual respect, break down the artificial 
barriers which stand in the way of true democracy, and 
relate the nations so that as brothers in one family they 
shall exist each in its own right in peace and prosperity and 
each looking out for the good of all the others, not content 
until all shall share its security and plenty. Such a vision 
may be far from realization, yet nothing less is worthy of our 



328 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

Lord, the Prince of Peace, who came to estabhsh his king- 
dom to the ends of the earth and make righteousness pre- 
vail as far as men are found. 

The Ground of Its Appeal 

As the world stands trembling in the uncertainty and 
dismay of the aftermath of the war, what has Christianity to 
offer? Has it a unique message, which other religions do not 
know? Is there that in it which will win the confidence of 
great world leaders, who are desperately turning this way 
and that to find a cure for the world's ills? Such are the 
questions being asked to-day — has Christianity a sufficient 
answer? It is taken for granted that nothing but religion 
is adequate to the task. What has shaken man to the depths; 
of his nature can never be touched by any cure which does 
not reach to the very center of life and the springs of motive 
and desire. Only religion can do this, dealing, as it does, 
with the ultimate facts of God and sin and salvation and the 
hereafter. Only religion can give man a satisfying philoso- 
phy of life, and, by pointing beyond the world while he is 
still in the world, reveal the presence of other factors with- 
out w^hich much that he experiences would be utterly 
inexplicable. 

In its approach to the present-day world the Christian 
religion has a personal note, which it would declare in the 
ear of every man and woman. There is a good God whom 
we may know by coming into fellowship with Jesus Christ 
our Saviour and Lord. He would have every man come to 
him by a path all may travel — that of trust. And when the 
horror of sin falls like a pall over the heart, the tender word 
of forgiveness may be spoken w'hich will bring joy and 
peace. And in place of palsied impotence in the presence 
of temptation may come the assurance that a new dynamic 
has been placed at the disposal of men which will make them 
"more than conquerors." And lest the danger should arise 
that sin may be thought of too lightly there is the cross of 






CHRISTIANITY 329 

Christ, revealing the awful agony in the heart of God be- 
cause of human sin and at the same time the eager desire to 
deal with it adequately irrespective of the suffering involved. 

There is the social note in the gospel of Jesus Christ which 
the world must hear. It is not enough that a man should be 
saved alone, even if that were possible. He is bound to his 
fellows by bonds so intricate and so enduring that, unless his 
religion reaches out and seeks to make all these lateral rela- 
tionships an expression of the same spirit which fills his 
breast, the very meaning of what he has received is largely 
lost. Is he a Christian ? Then his family must be Christian. 
And by the same token the business in which he is engaged, 
the social relationships which he enjoys, the political party 
to which he belongs, and the state to which he owes alle- 
giance are bound to feel the steady pressure of his influence 
as he seeks to make them the vehicle of the moral enthusi- 
asms and spiritual aspirations which are pulsing in his own 
life. A brotherhood of men in which the principles of the 
Sermon on the Mount shall prevail is an ideal far away it 
may be, but it is an essential note in that earthly kingdom 
which Jesus Christ came to found. 

And, lastly, there is the universal note, universal because 
Christianity is personal and social. Since our religion is 
able to speak the word of peace to the individual man and 
woman, it becomes our duty to convey it to every man and 
woman, for we are all fundamentally alike in our common 
humanity. And since our religion is the only unbreakable 
bond of brotherhood it can only be true to its essential nature 
by drawing all within its sphere, until not one man is left 
who has not felt the inner satisfaction of being a member 
of a world-wide fraternity, which affects him at every point 
of contact with his fellow men. Other religions make the 
claim to be universal; the Christian claim is unique in this, 
that all it makes bold to proclaim is epitomized in the person 
of its Lord and Master Jesus Christ. He is the perfect per- 
sonality; he made the Golden Rule live in daily practice; 



330 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND 

he is the universal man, and with all that he is the living 
Saviour and Master who through his Spirit is in actual con- 
tact with men. A present living experience of the power of 
Jesus Christ, manifested many times over in every country 
of the world, is the ground of our confidence that in him, 
and in him alone, can the world and all the men and women 
in it be saved. 

Suggestions for Further Study 

H. Franklin Rail, The Life of Jesus (New York, 1917). A widely 

used handbook. 
Peake's Commentary on the Bible (New York, 1920), by many 

writers, edited by Professor A. S. Peake. The best single volume 

from which to gain a knowledge of the Christian Scriptures. 
Williston Walker, A History of the Christian Church (New York, 

1918). The most successful attempt to condense the history into 

one volume. 
William Newton Clarke, An Outline of Christian Theology (New 

York, first edit., 1894). A very influential statement of Christian 

doctrine. 
Alfred E. Garvie, A Handbook of Christian Apologetics (New York, 

1913). A compact presentation of the grounds of the claims of 

Christianity. 
The Missionary Outlook in the Light of the War (New York, 1920), 

edited by the Committee on the War and the Religious Outlook. 
George Foot Moore, History of Religions, Vol. II, Chaps. V-XV. 



INDEX 



Abbasid Caliphs, 296 
Abdallah, 277 
Abeona, 122 
Abraham, 257, 272, 291 
Abrahams, I., on Maimonides, 

270; on Messiah, 273f. 
Absolute, in India, 161, 163 
Abu Bakr, 281, 283, 296 
Abu Talib, 277, 282 
Abydos, 88 
Abyssinia, 281 
Achaemenides, 144 
Acts, Book of, 312, 321 
Adad, 99 
Adam, 291 
Adeona, 122 
Adi-Buddha, 201 
Adoption, in China, 217 
Aerolites, worshiped, 55 
-^schylus, 117 
Afghanistan, 298 
Africa, 47; Islam in, 299 
Agni, 155 

Agreement (Ijma), in Islam, 288 
Ahura Mazda (Mazdah), 141, 142, 

143, 145, 146, 147 
Ainu, 47 
Akkadians, 97 
Al-Amin, 277 
Al-Ashari, 293 
Alexander the Great, in Egypt, 84, 

90; in India, 197 
Alexandria, 315 
Al-Ghazzali, 294f. 
Algonquin family of Indians, 52 
AH, 278, 281, 296, 300, 301 
Allah, 276, 281, 285, 287, 289, 292; 

Attributes of, 292f.; power of, 

293 ; not a father, 294 
Allenby, General, captures Jeru- 
salem, 265 
All-Father, in animistic religion,6i 
Almsgiving, in Islam, 290 
Altruism, of the Buddha, i85f.; of 

Mahayana, 202 
Amaterasu-o-mi-Kami, 237, 238, 

240 



Amenophis IV (Amen-hotep), 89, 

Ameretat, 142 

America, discovery of, 325 

Ames, E. S., definition of religion, 

23 
Amesha Spenta, I4if., 143, 145 
Amitabha (Amida), 207, 232, 241, 

244, 245, 246 
Amon, 85, 88, 89, 90 
Amon-Re, 87, 89 
Amorites, 97, 257 
Amos, 264 
Anahita, 147 

Analogy, principle of, 31; in ani- 
mistic religion, 63; in objects of 

sacrifice, 71 
Analogy (Uias), in Islam, 288 
Ananda, 187 
Ancestor worship, as origin of 

religion, 33 ; among Animists, 57 ; 

in Greece, 108; in China, 2i5f.; 

in Japan, 237; among Semites, 

260 
Angels, in Islam, 291 
Anglo-Saxons, 136 
Angra Mainyu (Ahriman), 142, 

145 

Animal-worship, in Egypt, Ssf . ; in 
Babylonia, loi 

Animism, definition of, 31; in 
Babylonia, 98; in Greece, 107; 
in Rome, 122; among Indo- 
Europeans, 138 ; in Korea, 209! ; 
in China, 2i4f.; in lands of 
Southern Buddhism, 204f. 

Animistic peoples, numbers and 
location, 46-48 

Animistic religion, name of, 45; 
why studied, 46; as traditional, 
49 ; as natural, 49f. ; as spontane- 
ous, 50 

Annam, 204 

Anskar, 324 

Anthropomorphism, in Greece, 
no; in Persia, 141 

Anu, 99 



331 



332 



INDEX 



Aphrodite, iii, 128 

Apis, 86 

Apollo, III 

Arabia, 82, 296, 301; tribes of, 

257; cradle of Semitic race, 258; 

religion in, before Islam, 276, 

283 
Arabian Nights, 291 
Arabic, language of Koran, 286 
Arabs, 97; in ascendency in Islam, 

296 
Arafat, Mount, 290 
Aramaeans, 257 
Aramaiti,|i42 
Aranyakas, 160 
Architecture, in Egypt, 91 
Ares, III, 128 
Arhat (Arahat, Arahant), 192, 

194, 201, 202 
Aristotle, ii7f., 270 
Arius, 316 

Ark of the Covenant, 262, 267 
Armenian Church, 297 
Armenians, 136 
Arnold, Matthew, definition of 

religion, 21 
Arpachshad, 257 
Art, Egyptian, 84 
Artemis, iii, 128 
Arval brothers, 124 
Arya Samaj, 178 
Aryans, 136, 180; in India, 153 
Asceticism, in India, 160; of the 
I Buddha, 182; in Christian 

Church, 3i4f. 
Asha, 141 
Ashur, 100 

Asia Minor, 128, 130, 132, 136, 298 
Asoka, 197 
Asshur, 97 

Assurbanipal, 98, loi 
Assyrian armies, 100; Empire, 98, 

100 
Assyrians, 257 
Astrology, in Babylonia, 102; in 

Rome, 132 
Atargatis, 132 
Athanasius, 316 
Atharvaveda, 158 
Athena, iii, 128 
Athens, 114 
Atman, 161 
Aton, 89f. 
Attalus, 130 



Attis, 130, 131 

Augurs, 124 

Augustine, 317, 324 

Augustus Caesar, 129 

Austerities, in India, 158 

Australia, 48 

Avalokitesvara (Avalokita, Pad- 

mapani), 206, 209, 246, 247 
Avatars, of Vishnu, 171 
Avesta, 141, 146, 147, 149 



Ba, 93 

Babylon, 97, 98, 99, 10 1 

Babylonian captivity, 264, 265 

Bagdad, 293, 296, 297 

Bain, Alexander, on instinct, 28 

Bali, 204 

Baluchistan, 298 

Bantu tribes, 47, 70 

Baptists, 326 

Barbarian invasions, 136 

Barth, A., on Varuna, 154; on 

avatars, 171 
Bel, 100 

Benares, 180, 183, 185 
Bengal, 180 

Besant, Mrs. Annie, 177 
Bethlehem, 304 

Bhabha, H. T., on Parsi belief, 151 
Bhakti, 172 
Bhikshus, 196 
Bhils, 47 
Bible, on origin of religion, 29; 

in Koran, 291 ; in Protestantism, 

318 
Biwa, lake, 242 
Blood, in sacrifice, 71 
Bodhidharma, 208, 231 
Bodhisattva, 20 if.; in Tibet, 206; 

in Japan, 240, 247 
Boloki tribe, 69 
Bombay, 148 
Boniface, 324 
Book of the Dead, 92 
Books, doctrine of the, in Islam, 

291 
Borneo, 47 

Bo-tree, 184, 185, 186, 190 
Brahma, creator, 170 
Brahman, absolute, 161, 162, 163, 

170 
Brahmanas, 159 
Brahmins, priests, 158, i67f. 



INDEX 



333 



Brahmo Samaj, lyyf. 

Bridge of the Separator, 143 

Buddha, 171 ; significance of title, 
180, 184; character of, 187; esti- 
mation of by his disciples, 199 

Buddhas of Contemplation (Dhy- 
ani Buddhas), 201, 246 

Buddhism, 158; disappearance in 
India, 198; transformations in, 
211; in China, 23ofiF.; monks 
and nims in, 23of., 233; sects, 
231 ; contrasted with other re- 
ligions, 233 

Burma, Buddhism in, 200, 204, 
205 

Bushido, 252 



Calcutta, 177 

Caliphs, 281, 302; orthodox, 295, 
296 

Cambodia, 204 

Canaan, Sons of, 257 

Canaanites, 97, 257, 262 

Canaanitish worship, 263 

Canada, 325 

Capitoline Hill, 126 

Carey, William, 326 

Caro, Joseph, 269 

Carter, J. B., on Etruscan influ- 
ence, 125; on Sibylline books, 
126 

Casartelli, L. C, on Zoroaster's 
date, 140 

Caspian Sea, 135 

Caste, defined, i64f. ; origin of, 
167; good and evil in, 168; in 
Brahmo Samaj, I77f. 

Cave, Sidney, on Siva worship, 173 

Celibacy, in early church, 3i4f. 

Celsus, on Egyptian rehgion, 86f. 

Central Asia, Islam in, 298 

Ceres, 127 

Ceylon, Buddhism in, 198, 200, 
204, 205 

Chaldea, 98 

Chaldeans, 257 

Chang Tao-ling, 229 

Ch'an tsung, school of Buddhism, 
23if- 

Chao dynasty, 219, 227 

Child marriage, in India, 166 

China, 144, 296, 298, 326; ances- 
tor worship in, 57; conservatism 



of, 214; contrasted with Egypt 
and Mesopotamia, 80; Bud- 
dhism in, 206, 207, 208, 209 

Chin dynasty, 219 

Christianity, appeal of, 328f.; in 
India, 179; in Arabia, 278; 
facing intellectual crisis, 320; 
uniqueness of, 15; as an Orien- 
tal cult, 133 

Chthonian gods, 112 

Church, Roman doctrine of, 3i7f.; 
Protestant doctrine of, 318 

Circumcision, in early church, 312 

City states, in Babylonia, 98 

Clan organization, among Sem- 
ites, 259; worship, 259f. 

Clarke, W. N., definition of re- 
ligion, 26 

Classification of religions, 43 

Clennell, W. J., on Chinese re- 
ligion, 233 

Clodd, Edward, on tree-worship, 

55 

Cochin-China, 204 

Codes, Jewish, 268f. 

Codrington, R. H., on mana, 52f. 

Coe, G. A., definition of religion, 
23f . ; on religious nature of man, 
28 

Columba, 324 

Comte, on fetishism, 58 

Confucius, 140; contrasted with 
Laocius, 228; life and labors, 
2i9ff.; teachings, 222f. ; esti- 
mate of human nature, 224; so- 
cial and political reformer, 225f . ; 
estimate of, 227 

Confucianism, as a religion, 226f., 
233; in Japan, 25ofif. 

Consorts of deities, in Babylonia, 
100 

Constantine, 322, 323 

Constantinople, 324; fall of, 298 

Conversions, to Islam, 297 

Coptic Church, 297 

Corinth, 321 

Cornelius, 312 

Council, of Jerusalem, 3i2f.; Bud- 
dhist, 198 

Covenant, at Sinai, 262, 267 

Cow, sacred among Aryans, 139 

Creation, in Bible and Babylonian 
myths, 1 01 

Creed, of Islam, 289 



334 



INDEX 



Crete, io6 

Crusades, 298, 325 

Cumae, 126 

Cuneiform script, 98 

Cunina, 122 

Cybele, the Great Mother of the 

Gods, 55, 130 
Cyrus, 98, 104 



Dainichi, 243 

Dakhmas, 146, 150 

Dalai Lama, 206 

Damascus, 296 

Danube, 121 

Danvish orders, 295 

Dastur, 149 

David, 263 

Davids, T. W. Rhys, on death of 
the Buddha, 187; on Dialogues, 
188; on Pali literature, 188; on 
Buddhist order, 195; on extent 
of acceptance of the Buddha's 
teaching, 200 

Dayananda Saras\''ati, 178 

Day of Judgment, in Islam, 280, 
281 

Dead, worship of, among animists, 

57 
Dea Syria, 132 

Death, in animistic religion, 57 
Definition of religion, nature of, 

I7f. 
DeGroot, J. J. M., on ancestor 

worship in China, 217 
Deists, English, on religion, I9f.; 

on origin of religion, 29f. 
Delhi, 298 

Deluge Stor\', in Babylon, loi 
Demeter, in Greece, 112, 114, 115; 

in Rome, 127 
Demon-worship, in India, 174 
Departmental deities, 42; in 

Greece, 108 
Description, as method of study, 

12 
Desire, the root of evil in Bud- 
dhism, 185, 194 
Development of religion, 37; 

causes of, 38fiF. 
Devi, 173 

Dharmakaya, 201, 203 
Dhyani Biiddhas, 201, 243, 246 
Dialogues of the Buddha, 188 



EHana of the Ephcsians, 55, 128 

Difference, doctrine of, in Islam, 
294 

Dionysus, in Greece, 113, 114; in 
Rome, 127 

Diverra, 122 

Divination, in Babylonia, loif.; in 
Rome, 124 

Dra vidians, 159, 167 

Dreams, among animistic peo- 
ples, 52; in Babylonia, 103 

Driver, Canon, on Arpachshad, 
257 

Duahsm, in Zoroastriamsm, I42f. 

Durga, 173 

Durkheim, Emile, on origin of 
religion, 33f. 

Dutch East Indies, Islam in, 204 



Ea, 99, 100 

Eastern Roman Empire, 297 

Eber, children of, 257 

Economic necessity, and origin of 
Eg>-ptian civilization, 82; of 
Babvlonian civilization, 96 

Edfu, 85 

Edkins, Joseph, on Chinese Bud- 
dhist sects, 231 

Edomites, 257 

Edula, 122 

Egypt, as gift of Nile, 81; Lower 
and Upper, 83; contrasted with 
Mesopotamia, 98; exodus from, 
261 ; Islam in, 295, 297 

Elamites, 257 

Eleusinian Mysteries, 112, ii4f., 
116 

EUjah, 263f. 

Elkab, 85 

Emanations, 314 

Emperor- worship, in Rome, I29f., 
in Japan, 237 

Enlil, 99, 100 

Enneads, in Egy^pt, 88 

Ephesus, 321 

Epic poems, in Greece, no; in 
India, 171 

Epicureanism, Ii8f. 

Eridu, 97, 99, 100 

Eskimos, 47 

Eternal Being, in Mahayana, 201 

Ethics, in Babylonia, 104; in 
Zoroastrianism, 143; in early 



INDEX 



335 



Buddhism, ig6i.; in Japan, 

Etruscans, 125 

Euphrates, River, 80, 97; Valley, 

96, 98 
Euripides, 117 

Evangelical Revival, 319, 326 
Evangelist of the Exile, 264 
Evolution, and origin of religion, 

30 
Exodus, 261 
Exorcism, in animistic religion, 74; 

in China, 2i4f. 
Exogamy, 66 
Ezra, 272 



Fairbanks, Arthur, on Greek gods, 
112 

Fair-mindedness, in study of re- 
ligion, 13 

Farquhar, J. N., on Aryans in 
India, 153!; on Brahman, 161; 
on Indian conservatism, 175; on 
religious reform, I78f. 

Fasting, in Islam, 290 

Fatalism, in Indo-European re- 
ligion, 138; in Islam, 292 

Fatima, 278, 300 

Fear, as motive in religion, 29; in 
animistic religion, 69f. 

Fellahin, in Egypt, 82 

Festivals, in Greece, 108; in 
Rome, 124 

Fetishism, defined, 58; descrip- 
tion of fetish, 59f.; origin of, 
6of.; related to magic, 61 

Fetters, Ten, in Buddhism, 191 

Feudalism, in China, 2i9f. ; in 
Japan, 252 

Filial piety, in China, 2i6f.; in 
Japan, 250 

Fire, among Aryans, 139; as sym- 
bol of Ahura Mazda, 146; in 
Parsi temples, 149 

Five Relations, of Confucius, 225; 
in Japan, 250 

Flam ens, 124 

Flint, Robert, on reHgion as uni- 
versal, 26 

Foochow, 233 

Fortune-tellers, modern, 104 

France, 302, 324 

JPrancke, 319 



Fravashis, 147 

Frazer, J. G., on exogamy, 66; 
on tabu, 67f.; on magic and re- 
Hgion, 77f. 
Freethinkers, in Islam, 293 
French Revolution, and the Jews, 

266 
Fung-Shui, wind and water, 216 
Future-Bodhisattva, 202, 203 



Gabars, 148 

Gabriel, 287 

Gairdner, W. H. T., on spread of 
Islam, 296 

GaHlee, 304 

Galloway, George, on develop- 
ment of religion, 39; on ani- 
mistic religion, 64 

Ganesa, 173 

Ganges Valley, 153, 180 

Garvie, A. E., on World Mission- 
ary Conference, 326f. 

Gathas, 141 

Gautama the Buddha, 169; family 
name, 180; account of life, 
i8off.; position of in later 
period, 248 

Gemara, 268 

Genesis, book of, 71, loi, 257 

Genii, see Jinn 

Genius, 123, 130 

Gentiles, 312; intermarriage with, 
272, 274 

Gerizim, Mount, 321 

Germany, and the Holy War, 291 

Ghonds, 47 

Gibbon, Edward, on Islamic creed, 
289 

Gilgamesh, loi 

Gnosticism, 314 

God, doctrine of, in Islam, 292ff. 

Goldziher, I., on Shiites, 30of.; on 
Sunnis, 301 

Gospel of Jesus, in Islam, 291 

Gospels, 308, 313 

Goths, 324 

Grace, Augustine's doctrine of, 

317 
Graeco-Roman religion, 128 
Grandmaison, L. de, definition of 

religion, 25 
Great Britain, 302 
Great Kings of Persia, 144 



336 



INDEX 



Great Mother of the Gods, see 

Cybele 
Great Wall of China, 220 
Greek colonies, 126 
Greek civilization, origin of, io6f. 
Greek influence, in Egypt, 90, in 

Rome, I25f. 
Greek thought, in Christianity, 

315 
Greek War of Independence, 298 
Gregory I, 324 

Gregory VII (Hildebrand), 324 
Gupta dynasty, 170 



Hackmann, H., on Korean Bud- 
dhism, 209 

Haddon, A. C, on magic, 77 

Hades, 114, 115 

Haggada, 268 

Halacha, 268 

Ham, 257 

Hamitic tribes, in Egypt, 82 

Hammurabi, 97, 99; code of, 104 

Hanifs, 278 

Hannibal, 55, 128 

Haoma (Soma), 139, 147 

Hamack, Adolph, on book of 
Acts, 321 

Harran, 99 

Hartland, E. S., on magic and 
religion, 78 

Hathor, %-j 

Haurvatat, 142 

Heaven, worshiped in China, 218 

Heavenly Ones, I37f. 

Hebrews, 257, 261 

Hegel, definition of religion, 20 

Hegira, 283 

Hejaz, 302 

Hekt, 87 

Heliopolis, priests of, 83, 87, 88, 89 

Hepatoscopy, divination by 
sheep's liver, 102 

Hephaistos, 11 1 

Hera, 128 

Heracleitus, on impermanence, 
189 

Herbert of Cherbury, on religion, 

19 
Hermes, iii, 128 
Hermopolis, 86 
Herodotus, 81; on embalming in 

Egypt, 92 



Hiezan, 242, 243, 245 

Hillel, 273 

Himalayan states. Buddhism in, 

206 
Hinayana, defined, and described, 

I99f., 204 
Hinduism, modified by Buddhism, 

i69f. 
Hippo, 317 
Hira, Mount, 279 
Historical method, 12 
Hittites, 136 

Hobbes, Thomas, on religion, 19 
HofiFding, Harald, definition of 

religion, 23 
Holland, 302 
Holy Spirit, 316 
Holy War, in Islam, 291 
Homer, no 
Honen, Shonin, 244 
Horus, 88, 95, 132 
Houris, 294 
Human sacrifice, 73 
Hurgronje, Snouck, on Holy War, 

291 



Ideas, of Plato, 118 

Ihram, 290 

Ijma (agreement), 288, 289 

Ikhnaton, 90 

Iliad, no 

Iman, 301 

Imhotep, 88 

Immortality, in Egypt, 9iff. ; in 

Babylonia, loi, 104; in Greece, 

Ii4f.; among Semites, 260 
Imperial House, of Japan, 251 
Impermanence, doctrine of in 

Buddhism, i88f. 
Incantation rituals, in Babylonia, 

103 
Incarnations, in Hinduism, see 

avatars 
India, 107, 136, 137, 325; Islam in, 

298 
Indians, American, 47 
Indo-Europeans, 107, I35ff. 
Indra, I55f., 171 
Initiation rites, among animists, 

66f. 
Injil (gospel), 291 
Instinct, and religion, 28 
lona, 324 



INDEX 



337 



Ireland, 136, 324 

Iroquoian family, of Indians, 52 

Isaac, sacrifice of, 71 

Isaiah, 261, 264, 272 

Ise, 240 

Ishmaelites, 257 

Ishtar, 99, 100 

Isis, 88, 91, 95, 131, 132 

Islam, effect of, in Africa, 300; 
sacred book in, 318; between 
East and West, 325; name de- 
fined, 276 

Israel, Northern Kingdom, 98 

Israelites, 257, 261 

Italic people, 136 

Italy, 128 

Izanagi, 237 

Izanami, 237 



Jackson, A. V. W., on date of 
Zoroaster, 140 

Jains, religion of, 182 

James, William, definition of re- 
ligion, 22 

Japan, Buddhism in, 206, 210; 
source of civilization, 235; 
Jesuits in, 326 

Japhet, 257 

Jastrow, Morris, Jr., on function 
of priest, 31; on gods of Baby- 
lonia, 99; on omens in Baby- 
lonia, 103 

Java, 47 ; Buddhism in, 204 ; Islam 
in, 298 

Jehovah, see Yahweh 

Jeremiah, 140, 261, 262, 264 

Jerusalem, 265, 304, 311, 312, 313 

Jesuit missions, 325f. 

Jesus Christ, account of life and 
teaching, 3045. ; resurrection of, 
311; and world vision, 321; in 
Koran, 291!; in early church, 
3 1 3 ; in Christian theology , 3 1 5f . 

Jethro, 261 

Jews, without a country, 265; 
persecution of, 265f.; of Me- 
dina, 284 

Jihad, see Holy War 

Jimmu Tenno, 237 

Jinn, in Islam, 291 

Jodo, sect, 244f. 

John the Baptist, 304 

John, Gospel of, 321 



Jonah, 272 

Jordan, 304 

Joseph, 304 

Judaism, and early church, 312; 
sacred book in, 318; and the 
covenant, 262; Reform school 
and conservatives, 27 iff. 

Judaizers, in early church, 313 

Judea, 304 

Judges, book of, 262 

Julius Caesar, 129 

Juno, 123, 128 

Jupiter Optimus Maximus, 122, 
126, 128 

Justinian, code of, 121 



Ka, 93 

Kaaba, 276, 289, 290 

Kabbala, 270 

Kali, 173 

Kami, 236 

Kami-no-michi, 236 

Kanishka, 198 

Kant, definition of religion, 21 

Kapilavastu, 180, 186 

Karala, 173 

Karma, in Hinduism, 159, 160, 
161, 178; in Buddhism, 194 

Kasdim, 257 

Kathenotheism, 156 

Kelts, 136, 324 

Kent, 324 

Keshab Chunder Sen, 178 

Khadijah, 277, 278, 279, 281, 282, 
284, 285 

Khnum, 86f. 

Khshathra, 141 

Kiang-si, 229 

Kingsley, Mary, on fetishism, 58 

Kitchen-god, in Japan, 236 

Knox, G. W., on Shinto, 237; on 
Buddhist teaching in Japan, 249 

Kobo Daishi, 240, 243 

Kojiki, 237, 239 

Koraish, 277 

Koran, 279, 280, 286f.; inspira- 
tion of, 287, 291, 292, 293 

Kore, 127 

Korea, Buddhism in, 206, 209; and 
Japanese civilization, 235 

Krishna, 17 if., 174 

Kshattriyas, 167 

Kublai Khan, 248 



338 



INDEX 



Kushan, mountain, 233 
Kwanyin, in China, 209, 232 
Kwei, 214 
Kyoto, 239 



Lamaism, in Tibet, 2o6f.; gods of, 
207; monasticism of, 207 

Lamas, 206 

Lamasaries, 207 

Lang, Andrew, on Supreme Beings 
in animistic religion, 61 f. 

Laocius (Lao-tse), life, 227; teach- 
ing, 227f,; and Confucius, 228 

Lares, 123 

Larsa, 97, 99 

Last Day, in Islam, 292 

Latins, 127, 136 

Law, Jewish, 266f. 

Legalism, Jewish, 267f. 

Lhassa, 207 

Liber, 127 

Libera, 127 

Linga, 172 

Lithuanians, 324 

Little Orphan Island, 233 

Liver, of sheep, in divination, in 
Babylonia, 102; in Rome, 124 

Liu Chi, sect, 232 

Lloyd, Arthur, on Shinran, 246; 
on Amida, 247 

Locutius, 122 

Logos, used by Philo and John, 

315 
Lolos, 47 

Loyalty, in Japan, 252f. 
Lu, state in China, 22of. 
Lubbock, John, on tribes without 

religion, 26 
Lucretius, on origin of religion, 

29 
Luperci, 124 
Luther, Martin, 318 
Lydians, 257 



McCurdy, J. F., on Semitic type, 
258 

McTaggart, John, definition of re- 
ligion, 21 

Maccabean revolt, 272 

Macdonald, D. B., on Moham- 
med, 280, 285; on mysticism, 
295 



Madhyamikas, nihilists, 203 

Maenads, 115 

Magi, 144, 145, 146 

Magic, relation to mana, 76f.; 
contagious, 77; mimetic or 
homeopathic, 77; in Egypt, 94; 
in India, 158; in Indo-European 
religion, 138; in Tibet, 2071. 

Mahabarata, 171 

Mahavira, founder of Jain re- 
hgion, 182 

Mahayana, defined, 199; in Dutch 
East Indies, 204; in China, 
Korea, and Japan, 206; de- 
velopment in Japan, 242f. 

Mahdi, the guide, 301 

Maimonides, code of, 268f.; be- 
liefs of, 270 

Maitriya Buddha, the coming one, 
201 

Mana, 52; and tabu, 68; and 
magic, 76f. 

Manchus, in China, 220 

Manes, 123 

Manetho, on Egyptian history, 84 

Manitu, 52 

Manu, Institutes of, 167 

Mara, 184 

Marduk, 99, 100, loi 

Ma.rett, R. R., on origin of re- 
ligion, 32 ; on Toda ritual, 67 ; on 
tabu, 67 

Marriage, in early church, 3i4f.; 
in India, i65f. 

Mars, 122, 128 

Martel, Charles, 296 

Martin of Tours, 324 

Maruts, 156 

Mary, mother of Jesus, 304 

Matter, as evil, 314 

Maya, illusion, 163 

Mecca, 276, 277, 281, 283, 289 

Medes, 98 

Mendelssohn, Moses, 266, 269 

Medina, 281, 282, 283, 285 

Mediterranean Sea, 81, 97, 106 

Memphis, 86, 88, 89 

Mencius, on filial-piety, 217; on 
Confucius, 222 

Menes, 84 

Menzies, Allan, definition of re- 
ligion, 23; on fetishism, 58, 61; 
on Roman deities, 122 

Mercury, 128 



INDEX 



339 



Messiah, Messianic hope, 273, 311 ; 

\ in early church, 312; in Islam, 
301 ; in Judaism, 273f. 

Middle Ages, church in, 324; Jews 
in, 265 

Middle Kingdom, in Egypt, 87 

Middle Way, of the Buddha, 183 

Midianites, 257 

Midrash, 268 

Minerva, 128 

Minoan civilization, 106 

Misery, see sorrow 

Mishna, 268 

Missions, Buddhist, I97f.; Is- 
lamic, in Africa, 299; Christian, 
in Middle Ages, 324^.; modem, 

325f- 

Mithraism, 322 

Mithras (Mithra, Mitra), 132, 133, 
139, 141, 147, 154 

Mithreums, 132 

Mobeds, 149 

Modi, Jivanji, on Parsi idea of 
salvation, 151 

Mogul emperors, 298 

Mohammed, life and work, 2776?.; 
as pathological case, 280; sin- 
cerity of, 282, 285; relations 
with Jews, 284; marriages, 284f. ; 
as reformer, 286 

Monasticism, in Buddhism, I95f; 
influence of, 211; in Southern 
Buddhism, 205; in Chinese 
Buddhism, 232; in Japan, 2425. 

Monier-Williams, Monier, on 
Hinduism, 174 

Monism, in India, i62f. 

Monotheism, in animistic religion, 
6if.; in Egypt, 89f. ; in Persia, 
14 if.; in China, 213; in Israel, 
264; in Judaism, 269, 271; in 
Islam, 276, 278 

Monsoon, in India, 156 

Montu, 88 

Moore, G. F., on Egyptian con- 
servatism, 83; on Aton, 89f.; 
on Plato, 118 

Morley, John, on definition of re- 
ligion, 16, 18 

Moses, 261, 291 

Mother-Earth, 64, 108, 112 

Motoori, 239 

Moulton, J. H., on Mazdah, 141, 
142, 143; on the magi, 144!.; 



on Aiyan gods, 147; on Parsi 
worship, I49f. 

Muezzin, 289 

Miiller, Max, definition of re- 
ligion, 2of . ; on origin of reUgion, 
36; on Indian gods, 156 

Mummies, 91, 92 

Mut, 88 

MutaziHtes, Seceders, 293 

Mycenaean civilization, 106 

Mysticism, in Islam, 294f. 

Mythology, in Babylonia, loof.; 
in Greece, iii 



Naaman, 259 

Nagarjuna, I98f. 

Name, power of, 74 

Nandi, I72f. 

Nassau, R. H., on fetishism, 58, 
59» 60 

National stage, of religious de- 
velopment, 4if. 

Nationality, loss of by Jews, 265; 
in India, I75f. 

Nazareth, 304 

Near East, 297 

Nebuchadrezzar, 98 

Negro tribes, 47 

Nehemiah, 272 

Nembetsu, prayer formula, 244, 

245 
Neoplatonism, 120 
Neopythagoreans, 119 
Nepal, 180, 206 
Neptune, 128 
Nestorians, in China, 246 
New Guinea, 48 
New Kingdom, in Egypt, 89 
New Testament, 312 
New Zealand, 48 
Nicea, Council of, 316, 322, 327 
Nichiren, founder of sect and 

patriot, 248 
Nigeria, 55 
Nihongi, 237 
Nile River, 8of.; as deity, 85; 

underground, 94 
Nineveh, 98 
Nippur, 97, 100 

Nirmanakaya, magical body, 203 
Nirvana, in Buddhism, 192, 194, 

201, 202, 203 
Noah, 257, 291 



340 



INDEX 



Noble Eightfold Path, igoi. 

Noble Fourfold Truth, igoi. 

Nobunaga, 243 

Nodotus, 122 

Noldeke, Theodor, on Allah, 276 

Nomas, in Egypt, 83, 85 

No-Soul doctrine, in Buddhism, 

I92f.; in contact with nomads, 

200 
Numina, of Roman deities, 122 



Octavius, see Augustus Caesar 

Odyssey, no 

Oil, in divination, loi 

Ojibway (Chippewa), Indians, 65 

Old Testament, heritage, 264; as 

Bible of early church, 313 
Olympus, no 
Omayyad Caliphs, 296 
Omar, 281, 296 
Omens, in Babylonia, 103 
Orenda, 52 

Oriental Christian churches, 297 
Oriental religions, in Rome, 13 iff. 
Origen, quotes Celsus, 86 
Orpheus, 115 
Orphic brotherhoods and religion, 

ii5f- 

Orthodoxy, in Hinduism, 164; em- 
phasis on after Reformation, 319 

Osiris, 88, 91, 95^-. 131, 132 

Othman, 296 

OthmanH (Ottoman) Turks, 298 

Out-castes, in India, 169 



Padmapani, see Avalokitesvara 
Palestine, 259, 265, 295, 305 
PaU, language, 187; literature, 188, 

193 

Paknistry, 102 

Pan-Islamism, 302 

Pantheism, in Egypt, 89; in In- 
dia, 161; in Japan, 243, 248; of 
Spinoza, 270; in Islam, 295 

Paradise, in Mahayana, 202; in 
Islam, 294 

Parliament of Religions, 177 

Parsis, 135; come to India, 147; 
number of, 148; become ex- 
clusive, 148; worship of, I49f.; 
differences between, i5of. 

Parson Thwackum, on religion, 18 



Passover, 304, 311 

Patrick, 324 

Paul, 3i2f.; the imperial-minded, 

321 

Peking, 206 

Penates, 123 

Penitential Psalms, in Babylonia, 
103 

Pentateuch, 291 

Persephone, in Greece, 114, 115; 
in Rome, 127 

Persia, 98, 107, 132, 136, 137, 295, 
301, 314 

Persian Gulf, 97 

Pessimism, in Egypt, 91 

Peter, 312 

Pharisees, 310 

Phihppines, 48 

Philo, 315 

Philosophy, in Greece, ii6ff.; of 
Mahayana, 203 

Phoenicians, 257, 263 

Phrenology, 102 

Phrygians, 136 

Pietistic Movement, in Germany, 
319. 326 

Pilgrimage, to Mecca, 290 

Pilgrims, Chinese Buddhist, 198 

Pilumnus, 122 

Pindar, Odes of, 117 

Pitakas, Baskets, early Buddhist 
Hterature, 187 

Plato, 117, 118, 119, 120 

Polis, Greek, 109 

Polygamy, in China, 217 

Polynesia, 52 

Pomerium, 125, 127, 128 

Pontifex, 124 

Pontius Pilate, 311 

Poseidon, in Greece, ill; in 
Rome, 128 

Prakriti, 163 

Prayer, in animistic reUgion, 73f.; 
in Zoroastrianism, 147; cylin- 
ders in Tibet, 208; in Islam, 289 

Preanimistic religion, 32 

Precepts, Eight, in Buddhism, 
I96f. 

Priests, in animistic religion, 74f.; 
in Babylonia, 99; in Greece, 116; 
in Rome, 123; in Zoroastrian- 
ism, 149; in India, 137 

Primitive Revelation, 29 

Progressive Brahmo Samaj, 178 



INDEX 



341 



Prophets, in Israel, 263f.; in 

Islam, 29 if. 
Proselytes, of the Gate, 272; of 

Righteousness, 312 
Proserpina, 127 
Psalms, of David, 291 
Psychology, and study of religion, 

26fT.; in Egypt, 93; of early 

Buddhism, I92f. 
Ptah, 87, 88, 89 
Ptolemys, in Egypt, 90 
Punjab, 153 
Puranas, 172 
Purification, in animistic reHgion, 

74; among Parsis, 150 
Purusha, 163 
Puto, island, 233 
Pyramid Texts, 92 
Pyramids, as tombs, 91 
Pythagoras, 119, 140 



Qias (analogy), in Islam, 288 
Quietism, in Japan, 253f. 
Quindecemviri, 126 
Quirinus, 122 



Rahula, 181 

Rama, 171, 172 

Ramadan, Fast of, 290 

Rama-Krishna, Paramahamsa,i77 

Ramanuja, 163 

Ramayana, 171 

Ram Mohan Ray, 177 

Rationalism, among Parsis, 151 

Re, 87, 89 

Re-Amon, 88 

Reciprocity, in Confucianism, 226 

Reformation, Protestant, 318 

Reform, in India, 175S. 

Reform school, in Judaism, 271, 

273, 274 
Re-Horus, 88 
Reinach, Salomon, definition of 

religion, i8f. 
Religion, importance of study, 1 1 ; 

as social, 22; as individual, 22; 

as worship, 23; as value, 24f.; 
* elements of definition of, 25; 

necessity of, 328 
Remmonl^o, sect, 255 
Renaissance, 318 
Renunciation, of the Buddha, 181 



Resurrection, in Islam, 292; of 
Jesus Christ, 311 

Revelation, Book of, 313 

Rhine River, 121 

Rigveda, 154, 155, .156, 158, 171 

Rogers, A. K., on impermanence, 
189 

Rogers, R. W., on deities of Baby- 
lonia, 99 

Roman Catholic Church, 121 

Roman Empire, 129; Judaism in, 
272 

Roman Law, 121 

Roman Republic, 124 

Romans, 107 

Rome, 55, 321, 322 

Russia, pogroms in, 266 

Ryobu-Shinto, 239f. 



Sabatier, Auguste, definition of 

religion, 23 
Sabbath, as tabu, 68; in history 

of Judaism, 267; and Jesus, 310 
Sacrifice, in animistic religion, 

7of.; origin of, 72f.; in India, 

I57f. 

Sahara, 299, 301 

Saivites, 172, 173 

Sakti, Saktism, 174 

Salvation, in India, 161; in Islam, 
294 

Samaria, city of, 98 

Samaveda, 158 

Sambhogakaya, body of bliss, 203 

Samuel, 263 

Samurai, 244, 253 

Sanhedrin, 311 

Sankara, 162, 163 

Sankhya, 163 

Sanskrit, 154, 167, 171 

Sassanids, 144 

Sati (Suttee), 166 

Saul, 263 

Scandinavians, 136 

Schechter, Solomon, on schools in 
Judaism, 271 

Schleiermacher, definition of re- 
ligion, 21 

Scholastic philosophy, in Islam, 

293 
Schools of the Prophets, 263 
Schrader, Otto, on Indo-European 

religion, 137! 



34^ 



INDEX 



Science of religion, possibility of, 

U 

Science, Western, in Japan, 254f. 

Scotland, 136 

Scythians, 136 

Second Punic War, 128 

Sectarianism, in Hinduism, 171 

Sects, in Chinese Buddhism, 23 if.; 
in Japanese Buddhism, 242f. 

Segetia, 122 

Seia, 122 

Sekhet, 87, 88 

Seljukian Turks, 297f. 

Semites, in Eg>'pt, 82; in Mesopo- 
tamia, 97; northern and south- 
em, 257 

Semitic ci\nlization, 258f. 

Semitic peoples, 257 

Senussi, 301 

Serapis, 91 

Sergi, Giuseppe, definition of re- 
hgion, 19 

Set, 95 

Sexual, in religion, in Babylonia, 

100; laxity in Islam, 297 
Shamans, 74 
Shamash, 99 
Shammai, 273 
Shang-ti, 218, 219 
Sheik- ul- 1 slam, 291 
Shem, 257 
Shen, 214 

Sherif of Mecca, 302 
Shih Huang-ti, 2i9f. 
Shiites, 300, 301 
Shingon, sect, 243 
Shinran Shonin, 244f., 246 
Shin (Shin-shu), sect, 244!., 247, 

250 
Shinto, defined, 236; revival of, 

239; mixed with Buddhism, 239; 

contrast with Buddhism, 241 ; 

and Emperor worship, 238f. 
Shotoku Taishi, 210, 240 
Shun, 219 

Siam, Buddhism in, 200, 204, 205 
Sibylline books, 126, 127, 128 
Siddhartha, given name of the 

Buddha, 180 
Signs, Three Fundamental, of 

Buddhism, i88flF. 
Sin, 99 

Sin, in Islam, 293f. 
Sinai, 261 



Sioux family of Indians, 52 

Sippar, 99 

Siva, 170, 171, 172, 173 

Skandhas (aggregates), I92f., 194 

Slave trade, and Islam, 299 

Slavic peoples, 136, 324 

Smith, W. R., on ritiial and be- 
hef, 69 

Sobieski, King John, 298 

Social service, in Christianity, 320 

Sociological theory of origin of 
rehgion, 33f. 

Socrates, ii7f. 

Solar pantheism, in Egypt, 89 

Sol Invictus, 56, 133 

Soma, 155, 156 

Soothill, W. E., on early religion 
in China, 213; on Tao,'228 

Sophocles, 117 

Sorrow, in Buddhism, i9of. 

Soul, as breath, 51 

South America, 325 

Southern Buddhism, 200 

South Seas, 300 

Spain, 295 

Speculation, in Mahayana, 20if. 

Spencer, Herbert, on origin of re- 
ligion, 33, 54 

Spener, 319 

Spenta Mainyu, 142 

Spinoza, 270 

Spirits, in animistic religion, 5off. 

State reHgion, in China, 2i7f. 

Statina, 122 

Stoicism, 119 

Stone- worship, among animists, 55 

Sublime Porte, see Sultan 

Sudan, 299 

Sudras, 167 

Suffering, in Buddhism, i9of. 

Sultan, 291, 302 

Sumatra, 47, 204 

Sumerians, 97; Sumerian deities, 

Sun, in Chinese animism, 2i4f. 

Simna, in Islam, 287, 289, 300, 301 

Superior man, the ideal of Con- 
fucius, 223 

Supreme Beings, in animistic re- 
Hgion, 61 

Suras of Koran, 279 

S>Tiagogue, 267, 272 

S>-ria, 132, 259, 277, 295, 315 

Sze-chuan, 229 



INDEX 



343 



Table Prepared, of Joseph Caro, 
269 

Tabu (Taboo), 67 

Tada Kanai, on Amida, 245f. 

Tagore, Rabindranath, as Indian 
nationalist, 176 

Talmud, 268 

Tao, defined, 228 

Taoism, today, 229, 230, 233 

Taoist popes, 229 

Tao Teh King, of Laocius, 227f. 

Tarquin, 126 

Taurobolium, 131 

Teh, defined, 228 

Templum, 125 

Tendai, sect, 242f., 245 

Tenrikyo, sect, 255 

Teutonic peoples, 136, 324 

Thebes, priests of, 83; Amon god 
of, 85, 88, 89, 90 

Three Religions Conference, 255 

Theism, in India, i7of. 

Theistic Church, in India, 177 

Theosophy, among Parsis, 151 

Thomas, N. W., on sacrifice, 7 if. 

Thoth, 88 

Thout, 86 

Thrace, 113 

Thuringia, 324 

Tiamat, 10 1 

Tiber River, 125 

Tibet, Buddhism in, 2o6f. 

Tien, 218 

Tigris River, 97 

Tishtrya, 147 

Todas, 67 

Tokugawa family, 239; and Bud- 
dhism, 249f. 

Tolerance, in study of religion, 16 

Torah, see Law, Jewish 

Torres Straits, magic in, 77 

Totemism, and origin of religion, 
34; defined, 65; and animal 
worship, 65 ; in Egypt, 86 

Tours, Battle of, 296 

Towers of Silence, 146, 150 

Toy, C. H., on mana, 53 

Traditions, in Islam, 287f., 292 

Transmigration, in Hinduism, 
I59f., 160, 178; in Buddhism, 

Tree-worship, among anmiists, 55 
Triads, in Egypt, 88; in Baby- 
lonia, 99 



Tribal stage, of religious develop- 
ment, 4of. 

Trimurti, 170 

Trinity, Christian doctrine of, 
3i6f. 

Turanians, 140 

Turkestan, 296 

Turkey, and the World War, 291, 
302 ; in Europe, 298 

Turks, in Islam, 296, 297f. 

Tutihna, 122 

Twet, 94 

Twice-born, in India, 167 

Tylor, E. B., definition of re- 
ligion, 20; on origin of reHgion, 
3 if.; on fetishism, 59; on mono- 
theism among animists, 62 

Typhon (Set), 132 

Ulfilas, 324 

Unitarianism, among Parsis, 151 

Universal stage, of religious de- 
velopment, 42f. 

Universalism,^ in Judaism, 272, 
273; in Christianity, 329! 

University of Tokyo, 255 

Untouchables, in India, 168 

Upanishads, 160, 162 

Ur, 97, 99 

Uruk, 97, 99 

Ushebtis, 93 



Vairochana, 243 

Vaishnavas, 172 

Vaisyas, 167 

Varna, 167 

Varuna, I54f. 

Vedanta, 162, 163 

Vedas, 159, 178 

Vendidad, 145 

Venus, 128 

Vesta, 122, 123 

Vienna, 298 

Vijnanavadins, idealists, 203 

Vishnu, 154, 170, 171, I72» I73 

Vishtaspa, 140 

Vivekananda, Swami, 177 

Vohu Manah, 141 

Volga River, 300 

Waddell, L. A., on Tibetan monas- 
ticism, 207 



344 



INDEX 



Wahabites, 301 

Wakan, 52 

Webb, C. C. J., on definition of 
religion, i6f. 

Weeks, J. H., on fear among 
animists, 6gi. 

Wellhausen, Julius, on Arabian 
deities, 276 

Wesley, John, 319 

Western Church, 317 

Whitefield, George, 319 

Widows, in India, 166 

Woman, in Buddhism, 183; in 
China, 217; in Islam, 285; in 
Hinduism, i65f. 

World ^Iissionar\' Conference, 326 

World War, and Christianity, 327 

Worship, in animistic religion, 
68fiF.; motive of, 69; in Greece, 
I i2flF. ; in Rome, I23f. ; in Hindu- 
ism, I57f.; lack of in early 
Buddhism, 190; in China, 

2l8f. 

Wright, W. K., definition of re- 
ligion, 22 
Wundt, Wilhelm, on exogamy, 66 



Yahweh (Jehovah), 261, 262, 263 

273. 312 
Yajurveda, 158 
Yama, 155 
Yao, 219 
Yashts, 147 
Yasna, 149 
Yellow River, 80 
Yoshihito, 237 
Yu, 219 

Zabur, 291 

Zeller, on number of animists, 47 
Zeid, adopted son of Mohammed, 

285, amanuensis of Mohammed, 

286 
Zemzem, 276, 290 
Zen, sect, 243f. 

Zeus, 109, 110, III, 114, 117, 128 
Zi, 98 
Zoroaster (Zarathustra), 135, 137; 

life and work, I39f. ; teaching, 

I4if. ; contrasted with Jesus 

Christ, 141 ; limitations, 143, 146 
Zoroastrianism, 104; contrasted 

with Hinduism, I39f. ; weakness 

of, I5if. 



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